QV2403 – against bacterial infection

Antibiotic drugs, which are necessary to treat many infections of the body, have the undesirable side-effect of disturbing the microflora by killing many of these indigenous microbes.

Such disturbance may lead to diarrhoea (known as antibiotic-associated diarrhoea or AAD). The proccess by which such diarrhoea develops, is that pathogens which were previously suppressed to small numbers by the microflora, suddenly have an opportunity to flourish.

One pathogen in particular, Clostridium difficile, is especially troublesome in such situations, and will grow to high numbers and cause severe infection and inflammation in the large intestine.

This infection causes the patient to develop colitis, with symptoms of bloody diarrhoea, pain in the lower abdomen, and often fever. The colitis may develop further into pseudomembranous colitis, which is a life-threatening condition. Clostridium difficile colitis can spread from patient to patient in hospital wards, especially those containing severely-ill or elderly patients, because antibiotics are used commonly among such groups.

There is an increased prevalence of strains of Clostridium difficile that have gained resistance to the majority of antibiotics used to treat patients. These multiply-resistant strains are known colloquially as ‘super-bugs’. AAD thus constitutes a growing problem, with serious consequences.

QV2403 uses Qualvivo technology

QV2403 has a tailor-made consortia of probiotic strains and prebiotic substances, into a ‘synbiotic’ preparation. The selected strains adhere to the intestine (i.e. stay in the intestine and exert beneficial effects) even after being exposed to stomach acid and bile.

We have ensured that these “good” properties are maintained when different strains are grown together, and in the presence of prebiotics and pathogens such as Clostridium difficile. This has been proven in experiments with mice and in an artificial gut.

In the QV2403 has been tested for their ability to suppress growth of the pathogen Clostridium difficile. Also the multi antibiotic resistant Clostridium difficile strain NAP1/O27 is suppressed.