Prevalence of binary toxin positive Clostridium difficile in diarrhoeal humans in the absence of epidemic ribotype 027

• Published in: PloS one 2017-11, Vol.12 (11), p.e0187658-e0187658
• Main Authors: McGovern, Alan M, Androga, Grace O, Knight, Daniel R, Watson, Mark W, Elliott, Briony, Foster, Niki F, Chang, Barbara J, Riley, Thomas V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ADP Ribose Transferases - metabolism; Animals; Australia - epidemiology; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Bacterial toxins; Biology and Life Sciences; Causes of; Clostridium difficile; Clostridium difficile - classification; Clostridium difficile - genetics; Clostridium difficile - isolation & purification; Diagnosis; Diagnostic systems; Diarrhea; Diarrhea - epidemiology; Diarrhea - microbiology; Enzymes; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genome, Bacterial; Genomes; Glutamate dehydrogenase; Health sciences; Hospitals; Humans; Infections; Laboratories; Livestock; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microbiology; Neonates; Patients; People and Places; Physiological aspects; Polymerase chain reaction; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Prevalence; Research and Analysis Methods; Ribotyping; Risk factors; Strains (organisms); Toxin A; Toxin B; Toxins; Virulence
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187658

Virulence of Clostridium difficile is primarily attributed to the large clostridial toxins A and B while the role of binary toxin (CDT) remains unclear. The prevalence of human strains of C. difficile possessing only CDT genes (A-B-CDT+) is generally low (< 5%), however, this genotype is commonly found in neonatal livestock both in Australia and elsewhere. Zoonotic transmission of C. difficile has been suggested previously. Most human diagnostic tests will not detect A-B-CDT+ strains of C. difficile because they focus on detection of toxin A and/or B. We performed a prospective investigation into the prevalence and genetic characteristics of A-B-CDT+ C. difficile in symptomatic humans. All glutamate dehydrogenase or toxin B gene positive faecal specimens from symptomatic inpatients over 30 days (n = 43) were cultured by enrichment, and C. difficile PCR ribotypes (RTs) and toxin gene profiles determined. From 39 culture-positive specimens, 43 C. difficile isolates were recovered, including two A-B-CDT+ isolates. This corresponded to an A-B-CDT+ prevalence of 2/35 (5.7%) isolates possessing at least one toxin, 2/10 (20%) A-B- isolates, 2/3 CDT+ isolates and 1/28 (3.6%) presumed true CDI cases. No link to Australian livestock-associated C. difficile was found. Neither A-B-CDT+ isolate was the predominant A-B-CDT+ strain found in Australia, RT 033, nor did they belong to toxinotype XI. Previous reports infrequently describe A-B-CDT+ C. difficile in patients and strain collections but the prevalence of human A-B-CDT+ C. difficile is rarely investigated. This study highlights the occurrence of A-B-CDT+ strains of C. difficile in symptomatic patients, warranting further investigations of its role in human infection.