Optimizing Inter-Microbial Antagonisms to Control Clostridium Difficile Infection

University Of Virginia, Charlottesville VA

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Abstract

Optimizing inter-microbial antagonisms to control Clostridium difficile infection The incidence of Clostridium difficile infection, which is commonly attributed to exposure to pathogenic C.difficile strains following the administration of antibiotics, has exhibited a steady rise worldwide. Recent studies suggest that clostridial infection can be controlled through promoting antagonistic inter-strain interactions on toxigenic C.difficile by non-toxigenic C.difficile and other polymicrobial strains. In order to optimize polymicrobial co-cultures for enhanced antagonistic interactions on toxigenic C.difficile strains, there is a need for means to rapidly screen for the particular microflora combinations that inhibit the colonization ability of toxigenic C.difficile strains. Since adhesion assays are time consuming, we propose the utilization of cell wall capacitance measurements as a means to rapidly screen for S-layer alterations within toxigenic C.difficile that inhibit its intestinal colonization ability. Based on this, a set of in vitro screening and in vivo validation studies are proposed for optimizing microflora towards reducing Clostridium difficile infection.