It's a win for those with C. diff and a milestone for microbiome-based therapies.
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Prescription poop is here: FDA approves fecal slurry for unshakeable diarrhea
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Drink it? I find that idea hard to swallow. The article states that the product is "given in a single treatment as an enema."
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Can't wait for all the euphemisms doctors will develop, like "Biological matter substitution", to deal with the "You want me to put WHAT up my butt?! What kind of freak doctor are you" crowd
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I can't beat the pun crowd, so I'll just say I hope this breaks down more barriers and stigma around these sorts of therapies. I feel that we've left a lot of mental and physical health treatments out of fair use, or even experimentation, because they're "icky" or taboo.
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Beautiful.
Every line of the article, every comment.
Thanks, Ars & Arsians, for making my world a little less shitty
Every line of the article, every comment.
Thanks, Ars & Arsians, for making my world a little less shitty
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For my 12yr old self, the furture has arrived !!!!
Flying cars, no interest, buy my poop !
Flying cars, no interest, buy my poop !
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You can now donate poop, you send in a sample and if it passes the required testing you can earn 5 dollars per donation.
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This warning was included
I think the fecal matter from a single person would carry less risk than a lit bit from each of multitudes of people.
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Don't over use those antibiotics or you stand a chance of picking up C diff from the abx wiping out your microbiome, and then needing the very product you're seeking to avoid.
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In seriousness, this hits close to home. My mom developed C. diff while being treated for cancer earlier this year and spent 10 days in the hospital, during which they found she was in remission. She was doing the last set of cancer treatments a few weeks later to prevent another reoccurrence of cancer when she suddenly died a few minutes after texting me that the C. diff was back. She was gone before EMS arrived.
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"via enemas, tubes through the nose, and oral poop-packed capsules"
lots of jokes here, but my dad had c.diff a couple of years ago. he spent a week in the hospital on a steady flow of antibiotics.
Entering the room was a hell of a process for the nurses, doctors, and us: washing hands, wearing gowns/gloves/masks, washing hands to leave, etc.
A simple treatment like this sounds great
lots of jokes here, but my dad had c.diff a couple of years ago. he spent a week in the hospital on a steady flow of antibiotics.
Entering the room was a hell of a process for the nurses, doctors, and us: washing hands, wearing gowns/gloves/masks, washing hands to leave, etc.
A simple treatment like this sounds great
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dogs4funlove
Smack-Fu Master, in training
Yeah I was thinking of the irony...but it's better than my legs being amputated (especially after that foot story).
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The screening process for donors is vital.
Doctors won't take crap from just anyone.
They need to know who actually gives a shit,
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Is there a reason they use actual faecal matter?
I would've thought they could isolate the bacteria and grow them separately - or is the bacterial 'soup' too diverse?
I would've thought they could isolate the bacteria and grow them separately - or is the bacterial 'soup' too diverse?
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C. diff is fucking nasty. It almost killed my mom earlier this year. She spent two weeks in the hospital including three days in the ICU. I kick myself for not making her go to the ER sooner because the doctor said had she waited much longer "things would have been a lot different."
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They actually tried that - down the nose or in pill form. Finally they decided to just do an enema. I guess if you're sick all the time you will try anything.
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I know that an actual serious question is ... not a good idea in this thread.
But(t), can an actual microbiologist opine on why the particular stable mix of microbial species needed to crowd out C. diff in the GI not be cultured in a more reproducible manner, i.e. without further resort to human donors?
But(t), can an actual microbiologist opine on why the particular stable mix of microbial species needed to crowd out C. diff in the GI not be cultured in a more reproducible manner, i.e. without further resort to human donors?
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My condolences to you and your family. I came >< close to losing my mom in August to it. She just seemed off for a few days and one day when I poked my head into her bedroom to say I was leaving for work I could tell something was majorly wrong. In hindsight I should have called an ambulance right then but instead I called my brother and we took her to the ER where they admitted her to the ICU with kidney and liver failure. Thank God after getting her stabilized they started running tests to see what caused it and found the c. diff. Had we/she waited another day; well I'd rather not think about that.
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"Mmmm...now that's some good shit..." - will probably not be said by anyone prescribed this treatment
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If you follow the microbiome model - that our bodies are basically rent out our guts (particularly the large bowel) to all these bacteria who pay the rent by breaking down food into nutrients that we would not otherwise be able to absorb, then this in effect trying to gentrify the neighborhood by evicting the troublesome tenants and getting in more desirable tenants.
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On a more serious note c. diff is no joke. One of the most persistent and difficult infections to treat effectively. Especially considering it is not an infection inside the body but only in the gut lumen. I often see repeated orders for long term therapy with vancomycin. One of the few drugs that remains even marginally effective for this condition. This treatment will probably save a lot of lives.
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BevansDesign
Ars Scholae Palatinae
If even 10% of all the promising uses of this technique turn out to actually be effective, this is going to be a massive step forward.
I was going to say "massive movement", but I feel like that would be childish, especially among so many distinguished and respectable comments.
I was going to say "massive movement", but I feel like that would be childish, especially among so many distinguished and respectable comments.
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That seems clear, the article densely packed with them.
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It's a great question that a lot of folks are working towards. The major problem is that it's just so damned complicated. The gut has usually hundreds or thousands of species of bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, etc, and the vast majority have never successfully been reproducibly cultured (probably because they can't grow in oxygen and need cofactors from other microbes or the body to thrive). There's also a slew of bacteriophages that target and kill specific bacteria but are practically invisible unless you know where and how to look for them. So with all that complexity, we really have little clue which bugs are important.
The goal for this and other microbiome/probiotic work is to eventually create these defined and characterized microbial communities to grow safely and at scale for all sorts of potential therapies (my own work is in neurodegenerative disorders). But until we understand how all these mostly unknown organisms interact together and with our own bodies, the easiest thing is to just take a microbiome from a healthy person and hope it does the job. It's a crappy system, but it's SO cool to see it actually working out.
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Is there a future where you freeze your own poop while you're healthy to later being able to restore your microbiome in case you get sick or need to take antibiotics?
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I recall maybe 30 years ago reading a book by one of the scientists involved in the Soviet biological weapons program (Biohazard, by Ken Alibek). One incident he described was a worker who got an accidental needle stick. As I recall, they nuked him with massive quantities of antibiotics, which killed most or all of his gut bacteria. Some of his associates sat around a table stuffing poop into capsules for him to swallow, in an attempt to repopulate his gut. IIRC, the worker died anyhow.
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For Holy crap you need to go to one of the biotech companies that is based in Vatican City.
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