Alternative Therapeutic Approaches For Multidrug Resistant Clostridium Difficile

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is among the leading causes of infectious diarrhea among patients in hospitals. Treatment with antibiotics, especially those with a broad spectrum of activities, disrupt normal intestinal flora and create conditions that favour acquisition and proliferation of C. difficile. Therefore antibiotic use is the primary risk factor for the development of CDI among hospitalized patients. Although, metronidazole and vancomycin are the first and second line of CDI treatment, the numbers of CDI cases are elevating worldwide with an emergence of hypervirulent strains, which are characteristically resistant to multiple types of antibiotics. Multidrug resistance in C. difficile continues to plague antimicrobial chemotherapy of CDI, posing a major cause of concerns within healthcare and hospital environments. The clinical impact of resistance is immense, characterized by increased cost, length of hospital stays, and mortality. Hence, there is an urgent need for alternative therapeutic approaches for multidrug resistant C. difficile.

This Research Topic will emphasize on various strategies for combating the multidrug resistance in C. difficile including novel antimicrobials from different sources such as herbal medicine, oligopeptides, nanomolecules, reversing the multidrug resistance, targeting spores for therapeutic and preventive measures, phage therapy, fecal transplantation and microbiota restoration, and related topics. We encourage submissions of original research articles, reviews, minireviews, methods article, hypothesis and theory articles, perspective, technology report, opinions and commentaries that make a substantial and up-to-date contribution to the field.