In the United States, an increasing number of people are killed because of infection of the gastrointestinal system. In fact, numbers can go as high as 15,000 of premature deaths and 250,000 of hospitalizations.
Now, a new study unleashed a new treatment for these stubborn infection-causing microorganisms. Ebselen, an antioxidant studied as a possible cure for reperfusion injury, stroke, tinnitus, and bipolar disease, is showing the potentials of totally eliminating one of the most harmful bacterium attacking the gastrointestinal system Clostridium difficile. Its mechanism involves directly paralysing a toxin secreted by the pathogen thereby hampering inflammation and preventing further damage to the digestive tract.
This is indeed good news as some studies found that other antibiotics can only kill about a quarter (25 per cent) from the pathogens in our tract. Another deemed effective treatment is fecal transplants that involve transplanting microbes into the intestine; however, the procedure is discouraged as not all microorganisms can become harmful if placed in another body.
"We don't have the tools to be able to screen for everything in a donor's stool," Justin Sonnenburg who is the co-author of the study and a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford said.
Initial testing involves injecting solutions with and without ebselen on several mice. Mice given ebselen were still alive after three days, while those not given died on the second day. Although the study was preliminary conducted on mice, scientists claim to advance the clinical research to humans as this drugs have already been used for other diseases mentioned earlier.
"Unlike antibiotics - which are both the frontline treatment for C. difficile infection and, paradoxically, possibly its chief cause - the drug didn't kill the bacteria," Matthew Bogyo, lead author and professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology, said.
