CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile), is a Gram-positive bacillus, anaerobic, spore- forming, that constitutes the major cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea, often in association with previous antibiotic use. C. difficile infection (CDI) symptoms can range from low/medium diarrhea to severe diarrhea with toxic megacolon, sepsis and even death. CDI treatment, in Argentina, is based on oral administration of metronidazole or vancomycin. The emergence and spread of C. difficile isolates resistant to multiple antibiotics, especially the hypervirulent ribotype 027 strains, are becoming an increasing problem for CDI treatment. Aloe Vera (AV) has been used in traditional herbal medicine as an immunomodulatory agent inducing anti-inflammatory effects. Moreover, AV gel exhibits antimicrobial properties. The inner leaf gel contains active compounds with prebiotic activity on beneficial microbiota, while others compounds inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria making it an alternative therapy for intestinal disbiosis.We evaluate the AV effect on C. difficile growth, and its impact in combination with vancomycin and metronidazole. The antibacterial activity of AV was determined by broth microdilution assays using the hypervirulent and toxigenic C. difficile (027/BI/NAP1) strain. The bacteria were cultured in anaerobiosis for 48h, seeded in triplicates in 96 microwell plates in the presence of AV/antibiotics. After 48h, C. difficile growth was determined in a microplate reader at 600nm. Two varieties of AV were used, Aloe barbadensis Miller and Aloe saponaria, in final concentrations of 1, 5, 10 and 20%. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) for metronidazole and vancomycin was calculated and the AV gel was used in combination with 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2μg/ml of each antibiotic. The results indicated that AV gel inhibits C. difficile growth (p

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