Researchers find new strategies to treat Clostridioides difficile infections, Health News, ET HealthWorld
ANI
March 13, 2023, 10:50 IST
Massachusetts: Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), two of the founding institutions of Mass General Brigham, have discovered the metabolic mechanisms Clostridioides difficile uses to quickly invade the gut.
The findings point to new ways to prevent and treat the most prevalent infection types and causes of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (HAIs). The team's methodology has implications for comprehending more general elements of microbial metabolisms, such as antibiotic responses and the generation of significant metabolites. The findings are released in Nature Chemical Biology.
"Investigating real-time metabolism in microorganisms that only grow in environments lacking oxygen had been considered impossible," said co-corresponding author Lynn Bry, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, associate medical director in Pathology at BWH, and an associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. "Here, we've shown it can be done to combat C. difficile infections and with findings applicable to clinical medicine."
"C. difficile is the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections and a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Understanding its metabolic mechanisms at a cellular level may be useful for preventing and treating infections," said co-senior author Leo L. Cheng, PhD, an associate biophysicist in Pathology and Radiology at MGH and an associate professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School.
C. difficile is an obligately anaerobic species of bacteria, which means it does not replicate in the presence of oxygen gas. C. difficile causes infections by releasing toxins that allow the pathogen to obtain nutrients from damaged gut tissues. Understanding how C. difficile metabolizes nutrients while colonizing the gut could inform new approaches to prevent and treat infections.
To complete their study, Bry and Cheng, faculty in the recently formed Mass General Brigham Pathology program, used a technology called high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (
Monday, March 13, 2023 at 5:20 am