Vaccine To Prevent Clostridium difficile Infection Is Safe And Effective.(Brief Article)

2001 MAR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer -- A vaccine against Clostridium difficile could be developed for use in humans at risk for infection, say researchers working at the University of Maryland.

Infection with C. difficile often is responsible for transmission of diarrhea in the hospital setting. The pathogen can cause significant disease, including life-threatening colitis, among hospital patients, noted K.L. Wasserman and colleagues.

The research team proposed using the vaccine route to protect vulnerable patients from C. difficile infection. Wasserman et al. assessed a vaccine containing C. difficile toxoids A and B in 30 healthy adults, who were inoculated on days 1, 8, 30, and 60. Three groups of subjects were given either 6.25 (micro)g, 25 (micro)g, or 100 (micro)g of vaccine.

In each of the three groups, subjects received either soluble toxoids or toxoids bound to alum ("Safety and immunogenicity of increasing doses of a Clostridium difficile toxoid vaccine administered to healthy adults," Infection and Immunity 2001;69(2):988-995).

Nearly all subjects (>= 90%) developed strong antibody responses to both versions of the vaccine, when assessed by immunoglobulin (IgG) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and neutralization of cytotoxicity, but only 50% were found to have fecal IgA increases, Wasserman et al. said.

The effects of both kinds of ...