Regular poo transplants could be a new method to managing Parkinson’s after a pilot study found the treatment is safe and tolerable.
A group of Adelaide researchers has assessed if a six-month course of faecal microbiota transplants (FMT) could top up the bacteria found in the gut of people living with Parkinson’s.
Their findings, recently published in the prestigious scientific journal npj Parkinson’s Disease, not only showed no adverse reactions to the treatment but also evidence of an improvement in patients’ quality of life when dosing was more frequent.
Associate Professor Robert Bryant, co-founder and VP of Translational Medicine at BiomeBank and gastroenterologist at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said these results were promising, paving the way for a larger future trial.
“The results of this pilot study inform our team as to how best to design a larger study to evaluate the efficacy of FMT in people living with Parkinson’s,” he said.
“Now that we know that FMT is safe, we would like to power a larger randomised study to test whether it truly works for symptoms and progression of Parkinson’s.”
In recent years, scientists have found evidence that Parkinson’s and gut health are linked.
Up to 90% of people with Parkinson’s are affected by constipation, an overlooked sign that often predates the traditional symptoms like tremors. There’s also an imbalance of bacteria in the gut.
Poo transplants involve taking the stool of a healthy donor, blending it into a liquid and administering it to a sick patient, transferring the healthy bacteria to help restore the balance of the gut.
This can be through either an enema, endoscopy, colonoscopy or capsule, and has been used to successfully treat C. diff and other gastrointestinal issues.
Twelve people took part in the pilot, receiving near-weekly doses via enema for the first eight weeks before reverting to monthly doses for the remainder of the trial.
However, the changes to the gut bacteria were small, suggesting a different mode may produce better results.
“Given the lack of change in the gut microbiota with enema delivery, a different approach to FMT may be better such as using daily ‘crapsules’ (freeze-dried FMT capsules),” A/Prof Bryant said.
This trial was the result of a collaboration between leading Australian biotechnology company BiomeBank and the Departments of Neurology, Nuclear Medicine and Gastroenterology within The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital; and The Hospital Research Foundation Group.
Leading Adelaide businessman Kevin Weeks, who lives with Parkinson’s, also financially backed the trial.
