Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a procedure where fecal matter is collected from a healthy donor and transplanted into the gut of a patient, usually with a gastrointestinal disorder. While restoring the balance of gut microbes, the procedure has often shown success in alleviating symptoms and improving overall health of the patient. Allocoprophagy, or the ingestion of another individual’s feces, was actually found to be practiced as early as 3000 years ago. In the past decade, the federal agency of the United States “Food and Drug Administration” (FDA) has classified stool as a biological agent that would require an investigational new drug permission, except for the treatment of the deadly recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. The latter could benefit from the use of FMT with no permit for its evident direct benefit in saving thousands of lives yearly.
Since then, more than 500 clinical trials using fecal transplants have been registered worldwide, and explored the use of FMT in the treatment other gastrointestinal diseases and conditions such as Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Antibacterial Resistance, bacterial flora disturbance, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.
On the other hand, we witnessed the tremendous advances on the role of gut microbes in Health and Diseases, with accumulating evidence on the extra-digestive communication between the gut and other organs via short chain fatty acids, the Vagus nerve or cytokines. Because of the multiple correlations between gut dysbiosis and various diseases, the gut microbiome and its metabolome became the therapeutic target of the future. Indeed, after the discovery of the gut-brain axis, evidence point at a gut-pancreas axis, gut-liver axis, gut-skin axis, gut-lung axis and many more. As a result, studies have started to investigate on the potential role of beneficial microbes in neurodevelopmental disorders, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, in metabolic syndrome, pancreatitis, asthma, allergies and more. Data suggest that an important background is being transferred from the donor, including its susceptibility to antibiotic resistance, diabetes or obesity.
Therefore, FMT shall not be taken as mild intervention. In fact, predicting what other disease can be transferred by transferring gut microbes is a challenge because several gut microbes are not culturable in vitro and therefore unidentified.
Indeed, it is necessary to combine the understanding of the microbial interactions within the gut and outside the gut with the current evidence of correlations found between dysbiosis and diseases.
How can the latest advances in gut microbiome studies, animal and clinical observations contribute to the methods of fecal samples’ screening? Shall the screening only concern the physical stool sample or the entire lifestyle of the donor? In the light of the role of gut microbes on epigenetics, shall the screening include genetic mutations? What ethical consideration shall we have around FMT?
We accept submissions of Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Case Reports, Clinical trial Reports, Perspective, Review, Technology and Code on the fundamental microbiology involved in FMT. Examples of questions are:
1. The fecal transplant collection, storage and screening for diseases, antibiotic resistance (CRE).
2. Delivery methods of FMT: advantages and risks.
3. Variability and predictability of FMT: the potential role of combining metabolomics with artificial intelligence.
4. From dysbiosis to eubiosis: comparing fecal transplants to probiotics ingestion and diet-based control of microbial growth.
5. Physiopathological mechanisms involved in microbiota changes.
6. Microbial changes using FMT on CRE, Autism, ADHD, Crohn, Colitis, Cancer, Obesity, auto-immune diseases, Alzheimer, Parkinson, Multiple Sclerosis, depression, anxiety and more.
7. The ethical considerations surrounding FMT, including issues of informed consent, donor screening, and long-term follow-up.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a procedure where fecal matter is collected from a healthy donor and transplanted into the gut of a patient, usually with a gastrointestinal disorder. While restoring the balance of gut microbes, the procedure has often shown success in alleviating symptoms and improving overall health of the patient. Allocoprophagy, or the ingestion of another individual’s feces, was actually found to be practiced as early as 3000 years ago. In the past decade, the federal agency of the United States “Food and Drug Administration” (FDA) has classified stool as a biological agent that would require an investigational new drug permission, except for the treatment of the deadly recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. The latter could benefit from the use of FMT with no permit for its evident direct benefit in saving thousands of lives yearly.
Since then, more than 500 clinical trials using fecal transplants have been registered worldwide, and explored the use of FMT in the treatment other gastrointestinal diseases and conditions such as Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Antibacterial Resistance, bacterial flora disturbance, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.
On the other hand, we witnessed the tremendous advances on the role of gut microbes in Health and Diseases, with accumulating evidence on the extra-digestive communication between the gut and other organs via short chain fatty acids, the Vagus nerve or cytokines. Because of the multiple correlations between gut dysbiosis and various diseases, the gut microbiome and its metabolome became the therapeutic target of the future. Indeed, after the discovery of the gut-brain axis, evidence point at a gut-pancreas axis, gut-liver axis, gut-skin axis, gut-lung axis and many more. As a result, studies have started to investigate on the potential role of beneficial microbes in neurodevelopmental disorders, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, in metabolic syndrome, pancreatitis, asthma, allergies and more. Data suggest that an important background is being transferred from the donor, including its susceptibility to antibiotic resistance, diabetes or obesity.
Therefore, FMT shall not be taken as mild intervention. In fact, predicting what other disease can be transferred by transferring gut microbes is a challenge because several gut microbes are not culturable in vitro and therefore unidentified.
Indeed, it is necessary to combine the understanding of the microbial interactions within the gut and outside the gut with the current evidence of correlations found between dysbiosis and diseases.
How can the latest advances in gut microbiome studies, animal and clinical observations contribute to the methods of fecal samples’ screening? Shall the screening only concern the physical stool sample or the entire lifestyle of the donor? In the light of the role of gut microbes on epigenetics, shall the screening include genetic mutations? What ethical consideration shall we have around FMT?
We accept submissions of Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Case Reports, Clinical trial Reports, Perspective, Review, Technology and Code on the fundamental microbiology involved in FMT. Examples of questions are:
1. The fecal transplant collection, storage and screening for diseases, antibiotic resistance (CRE).
2. Delivery methods of FMT: advantages and risks.
3. Variability and predictability of FMT: the potential role of combining metabolomics with artificial intelligence.
4. From dysbiosis to eubiosis: comparing fecal transplants to probiotics ingestion and diet-based control of microbial growth.
5. Physiopathological mechanisms involved in microbiota changes.
6. Microbial changes using FMT on CRE, Autism, ADHD, Crohn, Colitis, Cancer, Obesity, auto-immune diseases, Alzheimer, Parkinson, Multiple Sclerosis, depression, anxiety and more.
7. The ethical considerations surrounding FMT, including issues of informed consent, donor screening, and long-term follow-up.