Biofilm formation and toxin production are some of the virulence factors of Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile), which causes hospital-acquired C. difficile infection (HA-CDI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prevalence of community-acquired infection (CA-CDI) has been rising, due to changes in antibiotics prescribing practices, emergence of hypervirulent strains and improved diagnostics. This study explored CA-CDI epidemiology by examining strain diversity and virulence factors of CA-CDI isolates collected across several geographical regions in Israel.
Methods: Stool samples of 126 CA-CDI patients were subjected to PCR and an immunoassay to identify toxin genes and proteins, respectively.
Background: Viral infection is associated with a significant rewire of the host metabolic pathways, presenting attractive metabolic targets for intervention.
Methods: We chart the metabolic response of lung epithelial cells to SARS-CoV-2 infection in primary cultures and COVID-19 patient samples and perform in vitro metabolism-focused drug screen on primary lung epithelial cells infected with different strains of the virus. We perform observational analysis of Israeli patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 and comparative epidemiological analysis from cohorts in Italy and the Veteran's Health Administration in the United States.