New drugs for C. difficile infection

What is it about?

There is a dire need for novel drugs to treat C. difficile infection (CDI). This paper aimed to identify novel natural products that can be effective at treating CDI. Our work identified a hit natural product (obtained from Streptomyces sp.) that was even more effective than the standard-of-care antibiotics in inhibiting C. difficile in vitro and could also protect 100% of the mice from C. difficile disease pathogenesis in an acute phase infection model of CDI

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Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Why is it important?

C. difficile is a prominent human pathogen that can colonize the gut and cause fatal infections. Over the last two decades, there has been a significant rise in the incidence of severe cases of C. difficile infection (CDI). Dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota caused by antibiotic use renders a person vulnerable to CDI. Paradoxically, the first-line treatment agents for CDI are antibiotics. Although effective against C. difficile, treatment with antibiotics exacerbates the state of dysbiosis of the intestinal commensals and there is a high rate of recurrence of infection. In the era of ever-increasing infections, we are yet to deliver therapeutics that are effective in treating CDI and address the looming crisis of infection recurrence. Our findings identified a natural product obtained from Streptomyces sp. that could inhibit C. difficile in vitro and could also protect 100% of the mice from C. difficile disease pathogenesis in an acute phase infection model of CDI

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