Gut Bacteria Cocktail May End Need for Fecal Transplants

sciencehabit writes "A tonic of gut microbes may be the secret recipe for treating a common hospital scourge. Researchers have pinpointed the exact mix of microbes required to cure mice of chronic infection by Clostridium difficile. The hard-to-treat bacterium infects alomst 336,000 in the US each year and causes bloating, pain, & diarrhea. A similar bacterial cocktail may be able to replace the current controversial treatment involving the intake of a healthy person's fecal matter to restore the right balance of microbes in the gut."

Studying symbiotic microbes

[muhula]

Science is just starting to discover how the body as an ecosystem functions. We still have a lot of progress to make from wiping out all bacteria and relying on broad-spectrum antibodies.

The amazing thing about the bacterial ecosystem is how even different parts of your skin can be colonized by completely different types of bacteria, even just a few inches apart. There are symbiotic relationships just among the bacteria, and other bacteria which are several degrees removed from directly relying on our host bodies. It's a fascinating area of study, but one which is difficult, because it's impossible to isolate and study the bugs individually.

humbled by poo

[Penurious Penguin]

Hell, so it really is an actual treatment. I would never have surmised it. Pardon the crassness in the first sentence of my original comment, but it seemed ludicrous at first. Inadvertent education, ..who'd a thunk it.

Re:Insightful numbers

[muridae]

Just had that happen to me. Multiple infections meant that in the last six months I have had every type of antibiotic available. Then, surgery to remove the source of the infections. Since I'd been exposed to every major branch of antibiotics, the bacteria in my gut was now resistant to all but the 'drugs of last resort'. So of course, some of that bacteria got out and started trashing my insides and the surgical incision.

Scariest thing in the world to hear that the normal bacteria in your gut is now resistant to everything but Vanc, Streptomycin, and Linezolid; and that it's trying to chew it's way through your kidneys. Especially since those drugs of last resort almost all cause kidney damage.

Re:Yogurt does the same thing

[mjjochen]

I would never ever wish C-Diff on anyone, not even my worst enemy. After the wife was put on broad spectrum antibiotics for an ear infection, then came what we thought was a bit of the flu or stomach virus (a.k.a. the trotts). Never-ending trotts. After exploratory colonoscopy & cultures to verify, & several different rounds of antibiotics, what finally worked for us was one last round of antibiotics combined with an insane intake of yogurt & probiotics (as we were finishing off the antibiotics). I think it was the combination that worked for us. We now start a (paranoid) regimen of yogurt & pro-biotics whenever someone is on antibiotics. Would we have gone for the "shit enema" (as unappealing as that sounds)? Perhaps. Let me put it this way, after weeks of the most debilitating pain (doubled over in pain), not eating for days, and blood literally pouring out your hind end, you are ready to grasp at anything that might work. Wife said that child birth had nothing on the C-Diff pains (& she went through 2 births with not so much as an aspirin -- another story. . .). I'll joke about a lot of things, but not this. So if this works (faster), more power to it. Oh yeah, cases of C-Diff are on the rise -- yay ( http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mens_Health_Watch/2010/June/clostridium-difficile-an-intestinal-infection-on-the-rise [harvard.edu] & http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/03/06/148072242/deaths-from-dangerous-gut-bacteria-hit-historic-highs [npr.org] ).

Re:Yogurt does the same thing

[anotheryak]

"I have no idea what I'm taking about, and I was in too much of a rush to First-Post so I did not bother to read the article. But I made an anti-American remark, and I was snotty, therefore, I'm an instant Slashdot expert! Modded up to 'insightful'".

What sort of fools modded this up?

By the way, if you had bothered to read the article, the research is at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. In the UK. That's not in the US, that's across the Atlantic Ocean, way on the other side.

I think you underestimated your own laziness.