A University of Alberta researcher is part of an international team that has discovered a naturally occurring micro-organism that directly targets a bacteria that causes a sometimes deadly intestinal disease in young children and the elderly.
John Vederas, a U of A chemistry researcher working with colleagues in Ireland, found that a strain of the common soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis , produces thuricin CD, a 1:1 mixture of two compounds (peptides) that kills the potentially deadly bacteria, Clostridium difficile . But unlike other antibacterial agents, thuricin CD does no harm to other bacteria in the human gut, which are necessary for a balanced state of health.
Clostridium difficile causes abdominal pain and diarrhea that can require hospitalization. Outbreaks of the disease can be deadly in long-term care facilities. Provincial health officials in Quebec listed a Clostridium difficile outbreak as the direct cause of death for more than 1,000 people between 2003 and 2004.
When a bacterial infection is treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic, it clears all the bacteria from the gut and Clostridium difficile can take quickly take hold.
Thuricin CD has shown promising results as a specific antibiotic treatment for Clostridium difficile in vitro and is now being tested in animals.
Vederas is co author of a paper on thuricin CD published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences