Clostridium difficile Toxin A and B

Clostridium difficile infections CDIs are traditionally seen in elderly and hospitalized patients who have used antibiotic therapy. In the community, CDIs requiring a visit to a general practitioner are increasingly occurring among young and relatively healthy individuals without known predisposing factors. C. difficile is also found as a commensal or pathogen in the intestinal tracts of most mammals, and various birds and reptiles. Two major toxins produced by C. difficile, toxin A and toxin B, are the main source of C. difficile-associated disease. Toxin A is a cytotoxic enterotoxin that causes tissue damage while toxin B is a more potent faecal cytotoxin. Toxin B has a direct cytopathic effect by depolymerizing filamentous actin and causing destruction of the cytoskeleton, which in turn causes damage to the colonic mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract. The C. difficile toxin A and B multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit detects the genes for the major toxins of C. difficile toxin A and B on the basis of a genetic database, so it can diagnose very fast and accurately.