Intestinal bacteria living in our body have been found to affect not only the digestive system, but also various organs and brain functions. Recently, rejuvenation effects have also been studied./NIH
A study has found that nerve pain in diabetic patients can be treated with stool transplants. It is said that the gut bacteria of healthy people suppress inflammation and prevent nerve damage.
A research team led by Professor Liping Zhao of the Department of Biochemical Microbiology at Rutgers University and Professor Huijuan Yuan of the Department of Endocrinology at Zhangzhou University Hospital in China published an article in the international journal Cell Metabolism on the 14th saying, “The feces of healthy people Transplantation has reduced pain in patients with diabetic neuropathy by up to 35%.”
◇Anti-inflammatory bacteria increase, toxic bacteria decrease
Diabetic neuropathy is a disease in which biomaterials produced by high blood sugar act as poison and kill or degenerate nerve cells. Symptoms of burning and numbness appear, and in severe cases, it causes pain like being cut by a knife, but there is no proper treatment. It is not possible to treat the cause, but mainly prescribes drugs to reduce pain.
The research team first transplanted feces from diabetic neuropathy patients into diabetic mice. Then, like a patient with neuropathy, the peripheral nerves were damaged. The research team analyzed the feces of 86 patients and the general public who reported that intestinal bacteria were related to neuropathy. Of these, 27 had diabetic neuropathy and 30 had diabetic patients without neuropathy. The rest were not diabetic.
When the genetic sequence of the intestinal bacteria in the feces was analyzed, patients with diabetic neuropathy had 13 species of intestinal bacteria more than others. These gut bacteria accounted for 12% of the gut bacteria in patients with neuropathy, but less than 2% in others. The researchers speculated that reducing these bacteria and increasing other beneficial gut bacteria could have a therapeutic effect on neuropathy.
When feces of patients with diabetic neuropathy were transplanted into diabetic mice, toxic substances were released and peripheral nerves were damaged like patients with neuropathy (left). When feces from healthy people were transplanted to patients with neuropathy, intestinal bacteria (yellow) that prevent inflammation and bacteria that secrete toxic substances (pink) decreased, reducing pain (right). Patients given placebo did not change the composition of intestinal bacteria./Cell Metabolism
The researchers transplanted stool samples from people without diabetes into 22 patients with diabetic neuropathy. Ten other patients were given a placebo made of pumpkin and potato powder. Eighty-four days after transplanting fecal samples from healthy individuals, the gut bacteria that make butyric acid increased. Butyric acid is the most important metabolite made by intestinal bacteria and has an anti-inflammatory effect. At the same time, intestinal bacteria that secrete toxic substances were reduced.
When the composition of the gut bacteria was changed, the patients’ nerve pain was reduced by 35%, the researchers found. Patients who received a placebo only decreased by 5%. The researchers transplanted a stool sample from a healthy person back to the patient who had been given a placebo. Then, after 84 days, the number of bacteria in the intestine that also secrete butyric acid increased, and the number of bacteria that produce toxic substances decreased.
Professor Zhao said fecal transplants could also relieve nerve pain in other conditions. The problem is that the pain-reducing effect disappears 3 months after stool transplant. The researchers found that the treatment effect could last longer if fecal transplants were combined with a diet that provided nutrients favored by beneficial gut bacteria.
◇Faecal freeze-dried capsule-type medicine also appeared
Fecal transplants are currently being used to treat fatal diarrheal diseases caused by Clostridium difficile. If you get another disease and strongly prescribe antibiotics, beneficial bacteria die and malignant bacteria such as difficile proliferate, causing severe enteritis and diarrhea. In the United States, 500,000 people get this disease each year. Usually treated with antibiotics, 20% do not respond to the drug, resulting in 30,000 deaths each year. Fecal transplantation showed an 86% cure rate for them.
Recently, attempts have been made to expand fecal transplantation into other disease treatments. This is because it has been revealed one after another that gut bacteria are effective in treating cancer or diabetes. They also found out that people who do not gain weight no matter how much they eat or who gain weight even if they only drink water have their own gut bacteria. Depression, autism, and dementia have also been shown to be related to gut bacteria.
Transplanting intestinal bacteria from the feces of young mice into older mice increased muscle mass and improved skin moisturization. Memory and learning abilities are also improved, and it has been found to exercise more. / Adobe
Intestinal bacteria are expected to prevent aging. Earlier this year, Yonsei University Professor Ji-Hyeon Kim (Department of Systems Biology) and Professor Ki-Taek Nam (Department of Medicine) published an article in the international journal Microbiome, saying, “Older mice received intestinal bacteria from the feces of younger mice, and their muscles and skin became younger.” said. Professor Christoph Tice of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, announced in the international journal Nature last December that mice that turned the wheel five times more than other mice had different gut bacteria. This means that the dislike of exercise as you get older may be due to gut bacteria.
As it is revealed that intestinal bacteria treat diseases and even inhibit aging, pharmaceutical and bio companies are scrambling to develop intestinal bacteria as treatments. Currently, saline solution is added to the donated feces to make it liquid and transplanted to the patient. It is injected through the nose or mouth, or directly into the large intestine through an endoscope. Biotech companies freeze-dried solutions containing intestinal bacteria and made them into capsules to greatly reduce patient discomfort.
On the 7th, the Canadian Lawson Health Research Institute published the results of a clinical trial in the international journal Nature Medicine in which feces of healthy people were transplanted in the form of capsules along with immunotherapy to patients with melanoma, a skin cancer. Immunotherapy drugs stimulate the patient’s immune system to attack cancer cells. Only half of melanoma patients receive immunotherapy, and previous studies have shown that gut bacteria affect the treatment effect. In clinical trials, the researchers found that 65% of patients who received stool transplants responded to treatment.
reference material
Cell Metabolism(2023), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2023.06.010
Nature Medicine(2023), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02453-x
Microbiome(2023), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-022-01386-w
2023-07-14 06:27:00
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