Chain mail–like armor may help keep one superbug safe from bacteria-killing medicines.
Clostridioides difficile bacteria are notorious for taking over the guts of people who have taken antibiotics to treat other infections. If the antibiotic clears out too many good bacteria, the loss can throw the gut’s microbial system out of whack and allow diarrhea-causing C. difficile to take over (SN: 10/16/14). And C. difficile itself is resistant to many antibiotics, making the nearly half a million infections in the United States each year hard to treat.
That antibiotic resistance may arise because the medicines have a tough time breaking through the superbug’s nearly impenetrable outer barrier, researchers report
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