One atom can make a difference: Hydrogen-bonding pairing helps design better drugs to neutralize gut

Infections with bacterium Clostridium difficile have rapidly become a significant medical problem in hospitals and long-term care facilities. The bacteria cause diarrhea and life-threatening inflammation of the colon by producing toxins that kill the endothelial cells that form the lining of the gut. Although a natural inhibitor of these toxins, called InsP6, works in the test tube, it is not very efficient when administered orally. Traditional methods to optimize InsP6 have until now not been s