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Hello. My name is Anna Seekatz,
and I am an Assistant
Professor in
Biological Sciences
at Clemson University
in Clemson, South Carolina,
in the United States.
The research in my lab focuses
on microbial interactions in
the gastrointestinal tract
and how these interactions
contribute to health and disease.
Today, I will be talking about
the pathogen
Clostridioides difficile,
formerly known as
Clostridium difficile,
an important healthcare-associated
gut pathogen
that is of global concern.
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Clostridioides difficile, also
called C. difficile, or C. diff,
is a gram-positive
anaerobic bacterium
that is ubiquitous
in the environment.
Being an anaerobic pathogen,
meaning C. diff can only grow
in the absence of oxygen,
C. diff survives within the
aerobic world by forming spores.
These spores also act as its
primary transmission factor
and can be found throughout
our environment,
probably in more reservoirs
than we previously thought,
including in animal, food,
and environmental sources.
While improved infection
control measures have
drastically decreased
healthcare-associated
infections by C. difficile,
community-acquired infections
via these external sources
support a one health perspective
to survey additional
C. difficile risk.
The reason C. difficile
is a pathogen is
because it produces
two potent toxins,
Toxins A and B, which
can cause a range of
clinical symptoms
upon colonization.
Several factors can increase
your risk for developing
C. difficile infection,
including increasing
age, antibiotic use,
healthcare exposures,
where you also might
encounter spores.
During this talk,
I hope to cover
C. difficile
pathogenesis broadly,
including spore
germination in the gut,
toxin production, as well
as disease development,
and the role of the microbiota
in facilitating these processes.
