News item posted on 2015-06-11

CSB Research Spotlight - Borden Lacy

CSB Researcher and Chancellor Faculty Fellow Borden Lacy and colleagues have identified a cellular receptor for a toxin from Clostridium difficile (C. diff).

C. diff is the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea in the United States. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention estimates CDI caused nearly 500,000 infections in the US in 2011 and 29,000 deaths within a month of initial diagnosis. The two main virulence factors of C. diff are the large toxins, TcdA and TcdB, which enter colonic epithelial cells and cause fluid secretion, inflammation, and cell death.

In a recent PNAS article, Lacy and her colleagues at Vanderbilt have identified poliovirus receptor-like 3 (PVRL3) as a cellular factor necessary for TcdB-mediated cytotoxicity. Their findings suggest PVRL3 is a physiologically relevant binding partner that can serve as a target for the prevention of TcdB-induced cytotoxicity in C. diff infection (CDI). The targeted disruption of toxin-receptor interactions could provide novel therapeutic strategies that can either augment or replace the need for antibiotic therapies in the treatment of CDI.

For more information, read the online article or the PNAS article .


Author: Stephen M. Doster