Surotomycin is a cyclic
lipopeptide in development for Clostridium difficile-associated
diarrhea. This study aimed to assess the impact of
surotomycin exposure on C. difficile toxin A and B concentrations and the associated changes in immune response in comparison to
vancomycin and
metronidazole. Time-kill curve assays were performed using strain R20291 (BI/
NAP1/027) at supra-MICs (4× and 40×) and sub-MICs (0.5×) of
surotomycin and comparators. Following treatment, CFU counts, toxin A and B concentrations, and cellular morphological changes using scanning electron microscopy were examined. Inflammatory response was determined by measuring
interleukin-8 (IL-8) concentrations from polarized Caco-2 cells exposed to
antibiotic-treated C. difficile growth media. Supra-MICs (4× and 40×) of
surotomycin resulted in a reduction of vegetative cells over 72 h (4-log difference, P < 0.01) compared to controls. These results correlated with decreases of 77% and 68% in toxin A and B production at 48 h, respectively (P < 0.005, each), which resulted in a significant reduction in
IL-8 concentration compared to controls. Similar results were observed with comparator
antibiotics. Bacterial cell morphology showed that the cell wall was broken apart by
surotomycin treatment at supra-MICs while sub-MIC studies showed a "deflated" phenotype plus a rippling effect. These results suggest that
surotomycin has potent killing effects on C. difficile that results in reduced toxin production and attenuates the immune response similar to comparator
antibiotics. The morphological data also confirm observations that
surotomycin is a membrane-active
antibiotic.