1.10.2013

Gut RePOOPulation



Fake Fecal Transplants For Gut RePOOPulation
Excerpt:


A laboratory-made slurry of healthy bacteria could replace human fecal matter in stool transplants to treat bacterial infections. Gretchen Kuda Kroen reports.

When normal populations of healthy bacteria in the gut get out of whack, the result can be the stubborn and recurrent bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile – C-dif. The main symptom is nearly constant and debilitating diarrhea.

One of the most successful therapies for C-dif is to repopulate the intestines with healthy bacteria that keep that nasty C-dif in check. There’s been only one way to do this: import a small sample of a healthy person’s feces.

That’s right. A poop-transplant. But the “ick” factor of fecal transplants is a hurdle for some, as well as a regulatory conundrum for the FDA.

Which is why researchers at the University Of Guelph in Canada came up with a synthetic alternative: a laboratory-made slurry of healthy bacteria they’re calling “rePOOPulate.”

The research is published in the journal Microbiome. [Elaine O. Petrof et al, Stool substitute transplant therapy for the eradication of Clostridium difficile infection: ‘RePOOPulating’ the gut] It’s intended to replace human fecal matter in stool transplants, and researchers say it has several advantages. The bacteria are carefully controlled and can be tailored to the patient. It reduces the risk of transmitting disease. And, well, it’s just less gross.
Comment: Very detailed article: Stool substitute transplant therapy for the eradication of Clostridium difficile infection: ‘RePOOPulating’ the gut. This is significant because it is "a synthetic alternative: a laboratory-made slurry of healthy bacteria they’re calling “rePOOPulate."

3 comments:

  1. Well, there goes my chance for THAT kind of gallon pin!

    (wouldn't that be a conversation piece?)

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Bike Bubba .... I have a vision of that .... Winnie the Pooh's (pun) honey pot!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another poo transplant study .... not how they spell "fecal":

    Faecal transplants succeed in clinical trial - Unorthodox technique is far more effective than antibiotics at treating recurrent gut infection.

    Faecal transplants — in which faeces from one person is infused into another's intestines — have dramatically outperformed a conventional antibiotic at treating recurring infections of Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that causes severe diarrhoea.

    This marks the first time that the unorthodox technique has proven its effectiveness in a randomized clinical trial, in which patients are randomly assigned to groups that are treated with different therapies. The transplants were so successful that the trial was stopped early. The results are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    Faecal transplants are meant to restore the healthy complement of gut bacteria that would normally keep C. difficile at bay. Despite their unappealing nature, the transplants have been used to treat hundreds of patients, more than 90% of whom have recovered.

    ReplyDelete

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