Isolation of Clostridium difficile from human faeces (CDIFFPHAGE)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Isolation and characterisation of Clostridium difficile from toxin A/B-positive human faecal samples (CDIFFPHAGE)
IRAS ID
244224
Contact name
Martha Clokie
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Many pathogenic bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, and this is a major health problem globally. It is estimated that continued rise in multi-drug resistance would lead to 10 million people dying worldwide by 2050 and could cost 100 trillion USD. Now more than ever before, we urgently need to develop alternative treatments to antibiotics.
I am developing new methods of tackling such difficult-to-treat bacterial infections using natural products called bacteriophages. Bacteriophages specifically attack and kill bacteria. Due to their specificity, bacteriophages will target just one type of bacteria, kill it but leave your other natural good bacteria intact. Whereas with antibiotics, even with the narrow-spectrum antibiotics, you may stand the risk of destroying other beneficial bacteria and resistance may develop.
Clostridium difficile causes serious diarrhoea in many patients who are admitted into hospitals. The infection could be fatal and up to 10% of people who contract the infection could die within 30 days. This is mainly because many C. difficile types are less sensitive to existing antibiotics, and I am developing alternative ways to treat this bacterial infection. I have identified a large set of bacteriophages that are highly effective at killing C. difficile and I am currently developing the best set of bacteriophages to treat the infection.
To determine how effective these bacteriophages are, I need to test them against many C. difficile strain types that are being circulated in hospitals. To do this, I will isolate the bacterium from stool samples obtained from patients with diarrhoea. Only stools samples submitted for routine investigation that are positive for C. difficile toxins will be included. The efficiency of the bacteriophages to kill the isolated C. difficile will then be determined to enable us design the best phage set to kill C. difficile
REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0592
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion