Mice were anesthetized with inhalation of isoflurane and the peptide was intra-tracheally administered in 50 µl of PBS at 20 μM and 64 μM corresponding to a peptide dosage of 0.1 mg/kg and 0.35 mg/kg, respectively. Control mice were instilled with 50 µl of PBS without peptide. After 24 hours of treatment, mice were anesthetized with 2.5% tribromoethanol (Avertin). The trachea was cannulated, the lungs were lavaged twice using 1 ml saline, and the BAL samples collected as previously described51. The number of live immune cells in the BAL was determined by a Vision Cell Analyzer automatic cell counter (Nexcelom, Lawrence, MA). An additional aliquot was placed onto glass microscope slides (Shanon Cytospin; Thermo Fisher, Pittsburgh, PA), stained with Diff-Quick (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA); cell differential was determined microscopically. A total of 400 cells of every slide were counted at least twice independently for inflammatory cell differential counts. In other sets of experiments, cell differential counts were evaluated in the BAL of infected mice treated with or without peptides at 6 hours or 24 hours after peptide administration, as indicated.