Clostridium difficile sporesWIKIMEDIA, CJC2NDPatients who’d rather not ingest another’s fecal matter to fight tenacious cases of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) may soon have a less stomach-turning, and perhaps safer, alternative. According to a genetic sequencing analysis of intestinal microbes, a small handful of bacterial species may be all that are needed to restore health. The study, published today (October 23) in Nature, suggests that the bacteria protect against infection by altering the composition of bile acids in the gut.
While antibiotics work wonders fighting myriad infections, they can also wipe out the large contingent of beneficial bacteria that populate the human gut. Such widespread, indiscriminate destruction paves the way for infectious pathogens, including C. difficile—which can cause extreme diarrhea, abdominal pain, and if left untreated, even death. In the past decade, CDI has grown to epidemic proportions in hospitals around the country with nearly a quarter of a million Americans affected every year. Vanquishing C. difficile is especially challenging because, while a standard regimen of antibiotics can eliminate the majority of infections, residual amounts of the bacterium’s spores can survive the acidity of the stomach, allowing the bacteria to resurface weeks or months later.
A recent medical trend has seen patients with recurring CDI ...
