The close-knit, flexible outer layer — like chain mail — which protects superbug C.difficile has been unveiled.

This assembly prevents molecules getting in and provides a new target for future treatments, according to the scientists who have uncovered it.

Publishing in Nature Communications, the team of scientists from Newcastle, Sheffield and Glasgow Universities together with colleagues from Imperial College and Diamond Light Source, outline the structure of the main protein, SlpA, that forms the links of the chain mail and how they are arranged to form a pattern and create this flexible armour. This opens the possibility of designing C. diff specific drugs to break the protective layer and create holes to allow molecules to enter and kill the cell.

Protective armour

One of the many ways that diarrhea-causing superbug Clostridioides difficile has to protect itself from antibiotics is a special layer that covers the cell of the whole bacteria — the surface layer or S-layer. This flexible armour protects against the entry of drugs or molecules released by our immune system to fight bacteria.

The team determined the structure of the proteins and how they arranged using a combination of X-ray and electron crystallography.

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