{"doi":"10.1101/834903","title":"A high-fat/high-protein, Atkins-type diet exacerbates\n                  <i>Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile</i>\n                  infection in mice, whereas a high-carbohydrate diet protects","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  <jats:italic>Clostridioides difficile</jats:italic>\n                  (formerly\n                  <jats:italic>Clostridium difficile</jats:italic>\n                  ) infection (CDI) can result from the disruption of the resident gut microbiota. Western diets and popular weight-loss diets drive large changes in the gut microbiome; however, the literature is conflicted with regard to the effect of diet on CDI. Using the hypervirulent strain\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  R20291 (RT027) in a mouse model of antibiotic-induced CDI, we assessed disease outcome and microbial community dynamics in mice fed two high-fat diets in comparison with a high-carbohydrate diet and a standard rodent diet. The two high-fat diets exacerbated CDI, with a high-fat/high-protein, Atkins-like diet leading to severe CDI and 100% mortality, and a high-fat/low-protein, medium-chain triglyceride (MCT)-like diet inducing highly variable CDI outcomes. In contrast, mice fed a high-carbohydrate diet were protected from CDI, despite high refined carbohydrate and low fiber content. 28 members of the\n                  <jats:italic>Lachnospiraceae</jats:italic>\n                  and\n                  <jats:italic>Ruminococcaceae</jats:italic>\n                  decreased in abundance due to diet and/or antibiotic treatment; these organisms may compete with\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  for amino acids and protect healthy animals from CDI in the absence of antibiotics. Together, these data suggest that antibiotic treatment might lead to loss of\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  competitors and create a favorable environment for\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  proliferation and virulence that is intensified by high-fat/high-protein diets; in contrast, high-carbohydrate diets might be protective regardless of the source of carbohydrate.\n                </jats:p>","journal":null,"year":null,"id":638486,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":291639,"name":"Shrikant S. Bhute","orcid":"0000-0003-1576-3548","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291640,"name":"Jacqueline R. Phan","orcid":"0000-0002-5689-6462","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293504,"name":"Jacob V. Villarama","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1658363,"name":"Dung M. Do","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293506,"name":"Stephanie Alarcia","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1658366,"name":"Ernesto Abel-Santos","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291642,"name":"Brian P. Hedlund","orcid":"0000-0001-8530-0448","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293503,"name":"Chrisabelle C. Mefferd","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"A high-fat/high-protein, Atkins-type diet exacerbates\n                  <i>Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile</i>\n                  infection in mice, whereas a high-carbohydrate diet protects","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  <jats:italic>Clostridioides difficile</jats:italic>\n                  (formerly\n                  <jats:italic>Clostridium difficile</jats:italic>\n                  ) infection (CDI) can result from the disruption of the resident gut microbiota. Western diets and popular weight-loss diets drive large changes in the gut microbiome; however, the literature is conflicted with regard to the effect of diet on CDI. Using the hypervirulent strain\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  R20291 (RT027) in a mouse model of antibiotic-induced CDI, we assessed disease outcome and microbial community dynamics in mice fed two high-fat diets in comparison with a high-carbohydrate diet and a standard rodent diet. The two high-fat diets exacerbated CDI, with a high-fat/high-protein, Atkins-like diet leading to severe CDI and 100% mortality, and a high-fat/low-protein, medium-chain triglyceride (MCT)-like diet inducing highly variable CDI outcomes. In contrast, mice fed a high-carbohydrate diet were protected from CDI, despite high refined carbohydrate and low fiber content. 28 members of the\n                  <jats:italic>Lachnospiraceae</jats:italic>\n                  and\n                  <jats:italic>Ruminococcaceae</jats:italic>\n                  decreased in abundance due to diet and/or antibiotic treatment; these organisms may compete with\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  for amino acids and protect healthy animals from CDI in the absence of antibiotics. Together, these data suggest that antibiotic treatment might lead to loss of\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  competitors and create a favorable environment for\n                  <jats:italic>C. difficile</jats:italic>\n                  proliferation and virulence that is intensified by high-fat/high-protein diets; in contrast, high-carbohydrate diets might be protective regardless of the source of carbohydrate.\n                </jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"19910364","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2985472454","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"1R01AI109139-01A1","title":"Prophylaxis of Clostridium difficile infection"}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"green","license":"cc-by-nc-nd","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/11/08/834903.full.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/11/08/834903.full.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1101/834903","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1101/834903","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://msystems.asm.org/content/msys/5/1/e00765-19.full.pdf","host_type":""},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32047064","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00765-19","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/ffa2dfe6e5784a9098210c81176062b0","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/20c06c581de7414b8f8c053896303e11","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1101/834903","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/834903","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00765-19","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research","Gut microbiota and health","Gastrointestinal motility and disorders","0301 basic medicine","0303 health sciences","03 medical and health sciences"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Clostridium difficile","Lachnospiraceae","Biology","Gut flora","Clostridioides","Carbohydrate","Microbiology","Antibiotics","Weight loss","Microbiome","Bacteria","Endocrinology","Biochemistry","Obesity","Bioinformatics","Bacteriology","QR1-502","Atkins diet","Pathogenic Microbiology","Research Article"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":2,"sdg_label":"2. 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