The Beneficial Effects of a Combination of Prebiotic Galactooligosaccharides and Microbial Consortium on Clostridioides difficile Infection in a Mouse Model

Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection affects almost half a million people in the U.S and is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea with 1 in 6 people getting recurrent infections (Feuerstadt et al., 2023). In the case of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is often administered with a high success rate. Galactooligosaccharides (GOS), a prebiotic, have been associated with the increase in abundance of beneficial bacteria, like Bifidobacterium, that work to inhibit pathogen colonization. Here, we explored the potential of GOS, combined with a beneficial microbial consortium in inhibiting C. difficile colonization and improving infection clearance. As FMT has been shown to be effective in rCDI, mice were given GOS and administered either consortium or FMT in order to denote the success of a synbiotic in affecting C. difficile clearance. We showed that GOS was affective in inhibiting the colonization of C. difficile compared to control. While both interventions improved the presence of the infection at the end of the study, intestinal permeability was increased in both cases. Further research can elucidate the potential of a prebiotic and/or synbiotic in inhibiting pathogen colonization and severe infection.