Clostridioides difficile infection causes pathology that ranges in severity from diarrhea to pseudomembranous colitis. Toxin A and Toxin B are the two primary virulence factors secreted by C. difficile that drive disease severity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe complex network of microscopic organisms living on and within humans, collectively referred to as the microbiome, produce wide array of biologically active molecules that shape our health. Disruption of the microbiome is associated with susceptibility to a range of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, allergy, obesity, and infection. A new series of next-generation microbiome-based therapies are being developed to treat these diseases by transplanting bacteria or bacterial-derived byproducts into a diseased individual to reset the recipient's microbiome and restore health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection with the bacterial pathogen causes severe damage to the intestinal epithelium that elicits a robust inflammatory response. Markers of intestinal inflammation accurately predict clinical disease, however, the extent to which host-derived proinflammatory mediators drive pathogenesis versus promote host protective mechanisms remains elusive. In this report, we employed mice as a model of spontaneous colitis to examine the impact of constitutive intestinal immune activation, independent of infection, on disease pathogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a successful therapeutic strategy for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection. Despite remarkable efficacy, implementation of FMT therapy is limited and the mechanism of action remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate a critical role for the immune system in supporting FMT using a murine C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis an enteric bacterial pathogen that can a cause nosocomial infection leading to debilitating colitis. The development of a murine model of infection has led to fundamental discoveries in disease pathogenesis and the host immune response to infection. Recently, endogenously present in the microbiota of mice has been reported and was found to complicate interpretation of mouse studies.
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