title: Tracking Inhibitory Alterations during InterstrainClostridium difficileInteractions by Monitoring Cell Envelope Capacitance.
abstract: Global threats arising from the increasing use of antibiotics coupled with the high recurrence rates ofClostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections (CDI) after standard antibiotic treatments highlight the role of commensal probiotic microorganisms, including nontoxigenicC. difficile(NTCD) strains in preventing CDI due to highly toxigenicC. difficile(HTCD) strains. However, optimization of the inhibitory permutations due to commensal interactions in the microbiota requires probes capable of monitoring phenotypic alterations toC. difficilecells. Herein, by monitoring the field screening behavior of theC. difficilecell envelope with respect to cytoplasmic polarization, we demonstrate that inhibition of the host-cell colonization ability of HTCD due to the S-layer alterations occurring after its co-culture with NTCD can be quantitatively tracked on the basis of the capacitance of the cell envelope of co-cultured HTCD. Furthermore, it is shown that effective inhibition requires the dynamic contact of HTCD cells with freshly secreted extracellular factors from NTCD because contact with the cell-free supernatant causes only mild inhibition. We envision a rapid method for screening the inhibitory permutations to arrestC. difficilecolonization by routinely probing alterations in the HTCD dielectrophoretic frequency response due to variations in the capacitance of its cell envelope.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, United States.
authors.forename: Yi-Hsuan
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, United States.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rohani
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, United States.
authors.forename: Cirle A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, United States.
authors.forename: Nathan S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Swami
keywords: Clostridium difficile; bacteria; capacitance; diagnostics; dielectrophoresis; microfluidics