Controversy about a cure with human feces

Implantation is expected to become the future of medicine but there are still many questions to answer.

In 1957, the legendary microbiologist Stanley Falkow asked patients in the hospital to swallow their own stool. At that time, the person who is going to have surgery must take a large amount of antibiotics to kill all the bacteria that cause the infection. But the drug also kills intestinal bacteria, leading to diarrhea or indigestion. In order to prevent this problem, Falkow and his colleagues proceeded to collect the patient's stool.

By swallowing the stool that is transferred into the capsule, the patient supplements the intestinal bacteria. The situation lasted for months."The director of the hospital discovered the case. He questioned me if it was true that I had given the patient a stool ," Falkow said later. Microbiologist admitted and was fired but only after 2 days was rented back. He did not record any data from an informal trial, but witnesses confirmed that all patients taking feces felt better.

60 years later, stool culture is gradually accepted by the medical community. Even many health experts believe it will open a new future for world health.

According to The Atlantic, stool culture is often used to treat diseases caused by Clostridium difficile (C-diff) , a dangerous bacterium that causes severe, prolonged diarrhea. It is based on the idea of ​​donor microorganisms that will restart the microorganism system in the recipient's body.

Stool sample prepared for transplant.(Photo: stephanieclairmont.com).

Although it's hard to believe, transplanting is really effective. The literature has recorded hundreds of miraculous recovery cases thanks to this method. A clinical trial showed that while conventional antibiotics were only 27% effective, stool culture helped 94% of C-diff infected patients recover.

Of course, there are still problems. Transplanting makes it uncomfortable and easy to spread pathogens so doctors must thoroughly examine potential donors. In addition, feces are different from all medicines. They are made up of a series of unspecified bacteria and viruses and components that vary with each donor. This makes managers headaches by how to certify a product not made by the factory and changed at all times?

To solve the above question, two measures are taken. The first way is to get the donor's feces most healthy, freeze and reuse many times. The second way is to prepare an alternative mixture to still be as effective as grafting without using human waste.

The second option is chosen by many companies, including Seres Therapeutics (USA). Their SER-109 product is in the form of a single capsule containing 100 million spores from 50 species of intestinal bacteria, purified from donor droppings for the purpose of treating C-diff infections . SER-109 is expected to be high, but does not return the desired results. After 8 weeks, the test patients suffered from abdominal pain, flatulence, and diarrhea again. In other words, the pill does not work.

This failure does not negate the value of fecal implantation, which proves an obstacle to disseminating this method to the market. Scientist Diane Hoffmann from the University of Maryland (USA) commented: "Obviously there is an element that makes the whole distribution very effective. The problem is that we do not know what it is and most likely will be very difficult to remove".

Some experts like Elaine Petrof from Queen's University (Australia) believe that "feces are only temporary" and definitely replace it with a defined bacterial mixture. Not agreeing with this idea, Alexander Khoruts of the University of Minnesota (USA) said: "Bacteria from donors are naturally designed and proven to be safe for hosts. This is a very good standard. hard to reach ".

Ecology Noah Fierer from the University of Colorado (USA) wrote that ecological issues cannot be overlooked. The microbial system inside the human body is not a simple thing, but we can easily refine it by adding more. The ecosystem is as large as a tropical forest or a field. In order to control it successfully, we need to better understand the species composition, how they compete and cooperate with each other, how they interact with the host (human) and how they react when transferred to objects. other owner. Many questions about stool culture are waiting to be answered and humanity is only at the beginning.