Clostridium difficile is one of the several bacterial strains dubbed as “killer germ”. It belongs to the group of nosocomial pathogens, i.e. pathogen infections that are typically contracted in hospitals.
In North America and Europe, this pathogen has been on the rise and is responsible for approximately 25% of the infections in hospitals. The increasing prevalence is due to the high age of many hospitalized patients as wells as the frequent use of antibiotics, according to the Epidemiological Bulletin of the Robert-Koch Institute report from October 2017. Clostridium can form spores and thus survive antibiotic treatments. In Europe, especially strain RT027 is of concern as is very aggressive and spreads through Europe.
Research published in Nature yesterday (Jan 3, 2018) suggests that the rise of these Clostridium infections is due to a few strains which can efficiently metabolize trehalose, a disaccharide often used in the food industry as an additive. The researchers showed that dietary trehalose increased the virulence of a specific Clostridium difficile strain in their mouse-model. They suggest that the implementation of trehalose into the human diet helped select for the emergence of these strains and contributed to hypervirulence.
Trehalose is commonly used in the food industry in desserts and frozen products. Does this mean the food industry should abolish the use of trehalose? It’s important to put the findings into perspective: in healthy individuals, Clostridium typically does not lead to an infection, i.e. the consumption of trehalose by healthy individuals with respect to Clostridium difficile is not considered a concern. However, for the population group with a less-well functioning immune system or those that are frequently treated with antibiotics, a trehalose-free diet may be advisable.
