Author Archives: ryano

Bacterial composition following fecal microbiota transplantation

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Dynamic changes in short- and long-term bacterial composition following fecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection

Alexa Weingarden1,7†, Antonio González2, Yoshiki Vázquez-Baeza3†, Sophie Weiss4, Gregory Humphry5, Donna Berg-Lyons5, Dan Knights6,7, Tatsuya Unno7, Aleh Bobr8, Johnthomas Kang7,8, Alexander Khoruts7,8, Rob Knight2,9,10 and Michael J Sadowsky1,7*

Abstract

Background: Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) that often fails standard antibiotic therapy. Despite its widespread recent use, however, little is known about the stability of the fecal microbiota following FMT.

Results: Here we report on short- and long-term changes and provide kinetic visualization of fecal microbiota composition in patients with multiply recurrent CDI that were refractory to antibiotic therapy and treated using FMT. Fecal samples were collected from four patients before and up to 151 days after FMT, with daily collections until 28 days and weekly collections until 84 days post-FMT. The composition of fecal bacteria was characterized using high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, compared to microbiota across body sites in the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) database, and visualized in a movie-like, kinetic format. FMT resulted in rapid normalization of bacterial fecal sample composition from a markedly dysbiotic state to one representative of normal fecal microbiota. While the microbiome appeared most similar to the donor implant material 1 day post-FMT, the composition diverged variably at later time points. The donor microbiota composition also varied over time. However, both post-FMT and donor samples remained within the larger cloud of fecal microbiota characterized as healthy by the HMP.

Conclusions: Dynamic behavior is an intrinsic property of normal fecal microbiota and should be accounted for in comparing microbial communities among normal individuals and those with disease states. This also suggests that more frequent sample analyses are needed in order to properly assess success of FMT procedures.

Keywords: Short- and long-term changes in microbiota following FMT

Complete Paper in PDF

 

Microbes R My Friends

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Little did I know that I would be friends with a bunch of microbes! All my life I have been taught to “Wash your hands!” “you don’t want to have those nasty germs all over you!” etc., etc.  Little did we know that most of those nasty germs were actually friends.

The more as a society that we have cleaned up, we have become sicker and not better.  New autoimmune diseases are discovered every week and physicians are at a loss to fix it.  All we are told is that we should take drugs to “turn off” our immune response.  REALLY!?  This is how crazy it has gotten.

Many of my friends, family members and acquaintances now suffer from Crohn’s or IBS, or ADHD, etc. and their only hope is a lifelong drug addiction.  Not for me.  Understanding our microbiome holds such great hope that it has inspired me to start this website.  I hope that it can be a help to others looking for clues and answers that they are not getting through their physicians.

Let me know your story.  Let me know what you have found out and post it here.  I will promise you that we will share it and research it.