I’ve written about fecal transplants. Don’t go yech. If your colon is out of whack, then it’s one of the few avenues available to bring your system back into control. I’ve recommended the procedure to friends, who (after their initial disdain and horror) are pleased to have taken my advice. Because they are back to normal.
At least 14,000 American die each year from a Clostridium diccile infection.That’s a significant (about 5%) rate- since there are 250,000 cases reported each year. 30% of those infected fail to respond to antibiotic therapy. And, while fecal transplants work- they are a ….. to undergo.
Either the fecal solution is delivered via nasogastric infusion or via the rectum. Neither is very pleasant. Oh, and you have to undergo a fecal cleanse (with Colyte or Golytely, which were both developed around 30 years ago for bowel surgery- now used for this process, as well as for colonoscopic exams, too). And, then, there is also the problem of finding a suitable donor. And, hoping your insurance covers the expensive ( $3000 or so) procedure. (It’s labor intensive).
But, maybe not for much longer. Because Drs. Ilan Youngster (Mass General, MGH), George Russell (Boston Children’s), Tomer Ziv-Baran (Sakler, Tel Aviv), Jenny Sauk (MGH), and Elizabeth Hohman (MGH), as well as Ms. Christina Pindar (MGH) have been developing a pill to do the same thing. They reported their results in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The research was funded by Harvard (which is affiliated with those Boston hospitals) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Their preliminary results reported about 20 patients (aged 11 to 89) who took the pills. Of them, 19 were cured of their diarrhea and other C. Diff symptoms. Most (14) actually improved after a single two-day course of the pills; the others (who were sicker in the first place) were cured after two or three rounds (each course is separated by a week or so). One daily course is 15 capsules. The one test failure also had liver problems, which could be the reason why the treatment failed to correct the problem.
The pills were developed by recruiting subjects who were screened to insure they would meet the criteria. Their stool samples were mixed with saline and then sieved and subsequently centrifuged. Then, glycerol was added to the mixture to protect the microbes during the freezing process, once the samples were capsulized.
The capsule therapy will cost about $ 500 for a course of therapy. And, the pills are thought to have a 250 day “shelf-life” (frozen).
While this therapy is being developed for the C. difficile infections, it may prove useful for Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel syndrome, too.
Score one for yech!
I simply didn’t know that such transplants were at all possible. I suppose that anything to help patient in this field is long-overdue (Crohn’s disease isn’t well understood at all).
Muriel recently posted..My Friend The Maneater
Well, they’ve been pretty few and far between, Muriel. Because while C. difficile infections are devastating- they are fairly rare. And, maybe this “orphan disease” treatment may be expanded to treat those other diseases.