Disease-Alleviating Effects of Peroral Activated Charcoal Treatment in Acute Murine Campylobacteriosis

Foodborne Campylobacter jejuni infections are on the rise and responsible for worldwide serious health issues. Increasing resistance of C. jejuni strains against antimicrobial treatments, necessitates antibiotics-independent treatment options for acute campylobacteriosis. Activated charcoal (AC) constitutes a long-known and safe compound for the treatment of bacterial enteritis. In this preclinical intervention study, we addressed potential anti-pathogenic and immune-modulatory effects of AC during acute experimental campylobacteriosis. Therefore, microbiota-depleted IL-10(-/-) mice were infected with C. jejuni by gavage and challenged with either AC or placebo via the drinking water starting on day 2 post-infection. On day 6 post-infection, AC as compared to placebo-treated mice did not only harbor lower intestinal pathogen loads but also presented with alleviated C. jejuni-induced clinical signs such as diarrhea and wasting symptoms. The improved clinical outcome of AC-treated mice was accompanied by less colonic epithelial cell apoptosis and reduced pro-inflammatory immune responses in the intestinal tract. Notably, AC treatment did not only alleviate intestinal, but also extra-intestinal and systemic immune responses as indicated by dampened pro-inflammatory mediator secretion. Given the anti-pathogenic and immune-modulatory properties of AC in this study, a short-term application of this non-toxic drug constitutes a promising antibiotics-independent option for the treatment of human campylobacteriosis.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that activated charcoal has both anti-pathogenic and immune-modulatory effects in treating acute campylobacteriosis, reducing pathogen loads and alleviating symptoms in infected mice. Activated charcoal not only improves intestinal conditions, but also reduces cell apoptosis and inflammatory responses in the gut.