Development of new treatment method for Clostridioides difficile infection

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K07508
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 49050:Bacteriology-related
• Research Institution: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
• Principal Investigator: Senoh Mitsutoshi 国立感染症研究所, 細菌第二部, 室長 (20646624)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Clostridioides difficile / 糞便移植療法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a global health concern because of the high recurrence rate after standard antibiotic therapy. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is one of treatments for CDI with high effectiveness, however, it has risk to suffer diseases from donor or donor’s feces under current methods. The objective of this study is development of FMT without such risks, that is, high safety methods. I tried to purify a factor which suppresses growth of C. difficile in containing donor’s feces. To progress the research was very tough because of several reasons, such as, one of C. difficile strains used in this study showed different characteristics than the others, and some of purification methods were not applicable for fecal samples which were not used to examine the purification method. Percent complete was low for such reasons but at least important information for purification and identification of the factor were obtained.

Free Research Field

細菌学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Clostridioides difficile感染症の治療法の１つである糞便移植療法は、効果は非常に高いが、現状の施術方法では、危険性やリスクを伴っていることから、本研究では、この治療法の安全性を高めるため、ドナーの糞便中から治療の鍵となる因子を同定することを目的とした。因子を同定することにより、糞便移植療法のデメリットである危険性やリスクを取り除いた新たな治療法に発展させようと試みたが、目的を達成することはできなかった。しかしながら、因子同定の問題点を整理し、今後の研究の地盤を固めることはできたと考えられる。