Faecal transplant effective against antibiotic-resistant intestinal bacteria

The microbiota intestinal is a community of microorganisms, mainly bacteria – and in a lesser proportion, virus is mushrooms – which lives in our intestines. Considered an organ in its own right, it is involved in many physiological mechanisms. An imbalance of this flora, called dysbiosis, can lead to the appearance of diseases or, at the very least, favor their emergency.

When the gut microbiota isn’t as diverse or rich as it should be, it loses its protective capabilities. Opportunistic bacteria can then colonize the intestine e cause disease. It is the case of Clostridioides difficile (previously Clostridium difficile). This bacterium invades the intestine thanks to a weakness of the intestinal microbiota, caused by the socket antibioticand causes intestinal disorders. It’s difficult it’s a bacille Strict anaerobic, sporulating and producing toxins, toxins A and B. The first alters the permeability of the intestinal wall and the second destroys the cells of theepithelium. Their combined actions modify the file intestinal transit and cause the appearance of diarrhea abundant with a characteristic smell.

Getting rid of an infection It’s difficult it can become a true priesthood thanks to his resistance antibiotic therapy, but also by the ability of bacteria to hibernate. The spores allow bacteria to resist for a long time to unfavorable conditions for their development. When conditions improve, the vegetative forms of the spores reappear. The infection then becomes chronic. In case of It’s difficult, an infection is considered recurrent when it reappears eight weeks after the initial episode begins.

Transplanting healthy stools into sick patients

To overcome these infections, the researchers proposed transplanting the microbiota from healthy to sick patients. Known for millennia in China, the corruption of the microbiota saw its first tests in the West in 1983, and these multiplied in the following thirty years to culminate, in 2013, with the first clinical test randomized. It was a success and today the infection with It’s difficult is the only condition for which the transplant fecal is allowed.

In the newspaper Gastroenterology, American doctors publish the results of an observational study of 259 patients in 20 different hospitals. These patients suffered from It’s difficult recurrent and not curable with antibiotic therapy. They underwent a fecal transplant. For 9 out of 10 patients, infection with Clostriodioides difficile was cured within 1 month of the fecal transplant with some obvious but few side effects anniversaries.

Since there are banks of semen, there are banks of stool samples provided by anonymous donors. The sick patient can ingest the preparation colic (e.g. donor stool) or can also be administered by colonoscopy. It is the latter method that American doctors have chosen. Of the 259 patients, 222 were transplanted with approximately 250 ml of the colon preparation once. The doctors then followed up on their condition one month and six months after the operation.

Treat an intestinal infection in a month

Just one month after the transplant, 197 patients are declared cured of their infection with It’s difficult, or 98% of the initial workforce. But many side effects have been reported, such as infection-independent diarrhea It’s difficult, of the pains abdominal pain, swelling e constipation. Colonoscopy is an act invasive who can serve as door entrance to Nosocomial infections, this was the case with 2 people in the workforce.

The six-month follow-up allowed us to observe cases of relapse: only 4 participants, among the 122 followed after one and six months, had a relapse after about 8 weeks.

These observations are encouraging since a single fecal transplant made permanent treatment of recurrent infections possible with It’s difficult and significantly reduced relapses that often require stressful and costly hospital admissions.

Stool transplant: a new form of therapy?

Article published on 29 November 2013 by Agnès Roux, Futura

Faced with antibiotic resistance, doctors are in a bind. US researchers confirm the efficacy of fecal transplantation in crowding Clostridium difficile, to germ intestinal sometimes fatal. We could optimize this strategy to combat some chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity?

History seems to repeat itself. Researchers are developing a molecule miracle against a bacterial infection but the germ quickly finds a parade and makes it expired. The staphylococci, pseudomonas and Clostridia have become hospital beasts. Despite intensive research, some scientists are pessimistic and even believe the war on bacteria is about to be lost.

In a few years, the resistance to multiple drugs has become a major public health problem. The researchers, however, do not lose hope and demonstrate an ingenuity without fault against which to defend microbes. In a recent study, for example, a team did nanoéponges able to absorb bacterial toxins directly from the blood.

Another approach is gradually gaining ground. It’s not appetizing but it might work. it’s about fecal transplant, in other words the deposit of a intestinal flora healthy in a diseased intestine to eradicate bacteria pathogens. The idea is simple: when a pathogenic bacterium enters the digestive system and thrives, it disrupts the microbial balance and prevents sympathetic bacteria from coming to the rescue. Sending new intestinal microbes in reinforcement, the doctors hope to exterminate the invader without resorting to antibiotics.

Injecting new stool into a diseased colon

With this method we would avoid the problem of antibiotic resistance and quickly reconstruct the file intestinal flora essential for health. Unfortunately, such treatment is not without risk. It is indeed difficult to determine the exact bacterial content of it matters fecal harvest. It is therefore possible that dangerous microbes may reside there and cause new diseases when injected into the patient.

Research on the topic focuses primarily onspecies Clostridium hard (It’s difficult), a bacterium responsible for serious intestinal infections and which, like most of its cousins, has learned to resist antibiotics used to fight it. In a new study, published in the journal Plos one, a team from the University of Maryland in the United States confirms the efficacy of fecal bacteriotherapy.

Good bacteria to defeat Clostridium difficile

The researchers collected the feces of 14 healthy people and analyzed them to see if they were free parasites and dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia or It’s difficult. Then they deposited them in the file colon of 14 patients infected with It’s difficult with a catheter.

Thanks to the technologies of genomics and bioinformatics, the scientists then analyzed the gut’s microbial composition over time. They confirmed that the intestinal flora of patients infected with It’s difficult it was far less diverse than that of healthy people, especially when it came to signatories and proteobacteria. However, just one week after the fecal transplant, it becomes much more varied again and is even comparable to that of a person not infected with It’s difficult. Better yet, the bacterial populations injected persist after one year. This means that bacteriotherapy lasts over time and no longer gives the possibility to do so It’s difficult to take over.

A method applicable to other diseases?

This work confirms the effectiveness of faecal transplantation during It’s difficult. There are many perspectives. More and more studies reveal the importance of the intestinal flora for health. The billions of microbes that inhabit us are indeed beneficial in more ways than one: they help us digest well, improve the efficiency of our immune system and influence the development of some diseases such asobesity, type 2 diabetes e allergies. A recent study even showed that they participate in the development of depression !

Therefore, by checking the intestinal microbiota, doctors could not only defeat digestive infections, but also protect us from certain ones pathologies severe chronic. Fecal transplant represents a new form of therapy very promising.