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If microbial ecosystem therapy can change your life, what's the problem?
Author(s) -
Ettinger Grace,
Burton Jeremy P.,
Reid Gregor
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.201300015
Subject(s) - clostridium difficile , fecal bacteriotherapy , intensive care medicine , microbiome , psychological intervention , transplantation , medical care , medicine , medical therapy , incidence (geometry) , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , bioinformatics , emergency medicine , surgery , antibiotics , nursing , physics , optics
The increased incidence of morbidity and mortality due to Clostridium difficile infection, had led to the emergence of fecal microbial transplantation (FMT) as a highly successful treatment. From this, a 32 strain stool substitute has been derived, and successfully tested in a pilot human study. These approaches could revolutionize not only medical care of infectious diseases, but potentially many other conditions linked to the human microbiome. But a second revolution may be needed in order for regulatory agencies, society and medical practitioners to accept and utilize these interventions, monitor their long term effects, have a degree of control over their use, or at a minimum provide guidelines for donors and recipients.