PNAs: scientists are expected to develop a new drug therapy for Clostridium difficile infection

January 9, 2020 / BIOON / -- recently, in a research report published in the international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from New York City University and other institutions have researched or are expected to help develop and treat Clostridium difficile Clostridium difficile, a new infectious drug, can cause diarrhea, nausea, internal bleeding and potential death, which will pose a serious threat to public health Every year in the United States, the bacteria will infect about 500000 people and cause 15000 deaths Photo source: Xingjian Xu and Edwin pozharski today, antibiotics In this study, researchers found that a toxin released by Clostridium difficile may help them develop new drugs to block the function of the toxin, but also effectively inhibit bacteria Enter human cells and cause infection Dr Amedee de Georges, the researcher, said that the most dangerous Clostridium difficile would release a binary toxin, which can combine with cells and produce a pore forming channel, so that bacterial toxins can enter directly into cells and cause damage; in this paper, researchers combined a variety of biophysical imaging technologies to treat bacteria The generated binary toxins can be imaged and characterized, and the location of these toxins can be locked at the same time Relevant information can help researchers develop new drugs to effectively prevent the infection of Clostridium difficile The researchers combined the low temperature electron microscopy, X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance and small angle X-ray scattering technology to observe and identify the structure and mechanism of the toxin released by Clostridium difficile The researchers believe that the toxin released by Clostridium difficile is a binary toxin, that is, it needs two components to play its role; at the same time, the binary toxin also As a starting point, researchers may be able to clarify the difference between C difficile and C anthracis by using a similar way to anthrax toxin to enter the host cell Now researchers have found two similar but different forms of Clostridium difficile toxin, one of which can form a pore forming channel, while the other can form an invisible channel, which may provide researchers with clues to try to inhibit the formation of the channel and block the bacteria from entering the host cell Now researchers have identified a new type of calcium binding site in the toxin domain of Clostridium difficile They have not found this type of structural binding in any other similar toxins before, which indicates that this new type of calcium binding site may play a key role in regulating the entry of Clostridium difficile into cells Later researchers will continue to conduct in-depth research A new drug or therapy that resists Clostridium difficile infection Original sources: Xingjian Xu, Raquel Godoy Ruiz, Kaylin a adipietro, et al Structure of the cell binding component of the Clostridium difficile binary vehicles a di heptamer macroeconomic assembly, procedures of the National Academy of Sciences (2020) Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1919490117