Antibiotic resistance determinants in Clostridium difficile
Paola Mastrantonio and Patrizia Spigaglia
from: Clostridia: Molecular Biology in the Post-genomic Era (Edited by: Holger Brüggemann and Gerhard Gottschalk). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2009)
Abstract
Clostridium difficile, the well known nosocomial pathogen responsible for the majority of antibiotic associated diseases, is increasingly recognised also as the cause of community-associated disease and of enteric disease in animals. The organism is resistant to several antibiotics and can survive disruption of the normal intestinal flora after antibiotic treatment exploiting this advantage to colonize and cause disease. The study of the mechanisms responsible for resistance have highlighted the presence of mobile genetic elements in the C. difficile genome, potentially acquired from other microorganisms. C. difficile might be able to disseminate resistance determinants to other species, thus collaborating to the evolution of the antibiotic resistant patterns that characterise the bacteria circulating worldwide read more ...
