Clostridium difficile WIKIMEDIA, BOTGut bacteria are critical in fighting Clostridium difficile, highlighted by the recent successes in using fecal transplants in treating such infections. But resistance to C. diff infections can’t be attributed to any one microbe; rather, it’s the community of bacteria in the gut that matter, according to a new study that modeled the incidence of infection in mice based on their microbiota.
Patrick Schloss, a microbiologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and his colleagues started by giving mice various antibiotics to see how the treatments affected the composition of bacteria in their guts. Then, the researchers challenged the mice with C. difficile and built a mathematical model that could predict a mouse’s susceptibility to the pathogen with 90-percent accuracy. They published their results today (July 14) in mBio.
Bacteria belonging to certain groups, such as Porphyromonadaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Lactobacillus, Alistipes, and Turicibacter, appeared to protect the mice against C. difficile. Loss of those species correlated with an increase in susceptibility, as did an increase in Escherichia or Streptococcus bacteria. “Susceptibility is not all or nothing—it’s extremely context dependent,” Schloss said in a press release. “I ...
