Clostridioides difficile Toxins and Virulence Factors
A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Bacterial Toxins".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 5146
Special Issue Editor
Interests: infectious diseases; mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions; antimicrobial resistance; host genetics; susceptibility to bacterial infections
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Clostridioides (formerly Clostridium difficile) infection (CDI) is a major public health problem worldwide. CDI incidence rates are increasing at an alarming rate, with the total cost of treatment estimated to be up to 7 billion US dollars annually. C. difficile is responsible for 10%–25% of cases of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, 50%–75% of antibiotic-associated colitis, and 90%–100% of pseudomembranous colitis. Morbidity and mortality resulting from CDI-associated diseases have also increased significantly over the past ten years, making C. difficile one of the most important emerging antibiotic-associated diarrheagenic pathogens in the world. As a result, the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated C. difficile as an urgent threat. The risk for CDI increases with broad-spectrum antibiotics use, which disrupts the native gut microbiota, allowing C. difficile to proliferate. Other CDI-associated risk factors include old age, use of gastric acid-suppressing drugs, comorbidities, immunodeficiency, and inflammatory bowel disease. C. difficile virulence is largely dependent on the production of the toxins which are directly responsible for the disease. This Special Issue will cover recent findings on C. difficile toxins, as well as important virulence factors involved in its pathogenesis.
Prof. Dr. Charles Darkoh
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Clostridium difficile pathogenesis
- Clostridium toxins A and A
- Clostridium binary toxins
- virulence factors of Clostridium
- toxin regulation
