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Article: FMT success linked to composition of the donor intestinal microbiota

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 10/26/2017 8:59 PM (GMT 0)
Interesting, some highlights:

Results
In the FMT-group, 10/17 (59%) of patients showed a response and 4/17 (24%) a remission to faecal microbiota transplantation. Response to faecal microbiota transplantation was mainly influenced by the taxonomic composition of the donor's microbiota. Stool of donors with a high bacterial richness (observed species remission 946 ± 93 vs no response 797 ± 181 at 15367 rps) and a high relative abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila (3.3 ± 3.1% vs 0.1 ± 0.2%), unclassified Ruminococcaceae (13.8 ± 5.0% vs 7.5 ± 3.7%), and Ruminococcus spp. (4.9 ± 3.5% vs 1.0 ± 0.7%) were more likely to induce remission. In contrast antibiotic treatment alone (AB-group) was poorly tolerated, probably because of a sustained decrease of intestinal microbial richness.

Conclusions
The taxonomic composition of the donor's intestinal microbiota is a major factor influencing the efficacy of faecal microbiota transplantation in ulcerative colitis patients. The design of specific microbial preparation might lead to new treatments for ulcerative colitis.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apt.14387/abstract
Posted 10/27/2017 12:16 AM (GMT 0)
Always glad to see more FMT trials for us... FMT is one of the out-of-the-box treatments that gives me a lot of hope. Places like openBiome seem to have perfected the safety factors when it comes to getting good donors... I hope that by the time places like that begin treating UC patients, studies like the one you posted (ones that that analyze the type and diversity requirements for FMT to be effective) will have become mainstream and taken into account.
Posted 10/27/2017 12:22 AM (GMT 0)
I always say FMT is going to lead to better and better probiotic treatments. the future is not and never was in crap. It is in the biotics. The sooner the figure out what biotics in what combination, and how to deliver them live and cheap, well the sooner the better.
Posted 10/27/2017 12:36 AM (GMT 0)

DBwithUC said...
I always say FMT is going to lead to better and better probiotic treatments. the future is not and never was in crap. It is in the biotics. The sooner the figure out what biotics in what combination, and how to deliver them live and cheap, well the sooner the better.

I think you're right, that in the distant future, this is probably how diseases like this will be treated. In the immediate future, I think it'll be far too difficult to understand and we'll have a few studies (some of them conflicting) about which strains seem to help or might help, and we'll take an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach and throw a bunch of bacteria in there derived from feces. Scientists will someday learn that a lot of it did nothing for the most part and only a few bacterial strains were key. OR, we're all missing different combinations and we'll continue to use the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach or we'll be able to be profiled using samples of our own and given a designer probiotic to match.
Posted 10/27/2017 10:57 AM (GMT 0)
this seems like such a no brainer. I understand the work needs to be done, but the fact that FMT works fantastically for some and not at all for others seems to obviously relate in part to what is in donors' stool. Glad to see they're making some progress.
Posted 10/27/2017 1:56 PM (GMT 0)
I expected further research into donor bacteria after reading a study a while back where one of the four donors used for the study induced remission in 100% of the fmt recipients.
Posted 10/27/2017 2:37 PM (GMT 0)
Exactly Uniform Charlie! If I was that one donor who helped 100% of patients during that trial then I'd just retire and sell my miracle poop to heal us all (feel great about helping others, and live comfortably hah)! Brown-gold, right there smile

They got to isolate the goodies from the baddies in the stool. Can't wait to only get the good components without the inherent risk of FMT. Lots of unknowns right now, and I hope they sort it out sooner rather than later. Not a fan of current wild-wild-west DIY FMT, as there's more risk and a gamble on donor usefulness. Totally get why people do the DIY approach, we've all been struggling and willing to try just about anything to feel even a bit better... UC sucks royally!
Posted 10/27/2017 4:26 PM (GMT 0)
Sounds like a good Seinfeld episode
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