New Host-Directed Therapeutics for the Treatment of Clostridioides difficile Infection.

ABSTRACT: Frequent and excessive use of antibiotics primes patients to Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), which leads to fatal pseudomembranous colitis, with limited treatment options. In earlier reports, we used a drug repurposing strategy and identified amoxapine (an antidepressant), doxapram (a breathing stimulant), and trifluoperazine (an antipsychotic), which provided significant protection to mice against lethal infections with several pathogens, including C. difficile However, the mechanisms of action of these drugs were not known. Here, we provide evidence that all three drugs offered protection against experimental CDI by reducing bacterial burden and toxin levels, although the drugs were neither bacteriostatic nor bactericidal in nature and had minimal impact on the co

SUBMITTER: Andersson JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7064747 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature