Clostridioides difficile (above). By Jocelyn KaiserWhen people take antibiotics for one infection, another can swoop in to take its place: the bacterium Clostridioides difficile, which causes severe, recurring colon infections that kill nearly 30,000 people annually in the United States, most over the age of 65.
Now, researchers have a new idea for battling C. diff: They have modified yeast to produce and deliver antibodies that defang the bacterium’s two toxins and spur recovery in infected mice.If it works in people, the genetically engineered yeast, derived from a strain used in a popular probiotic, could be taken as a daily pill to ward off or treat C.