faeces transplantation

[flower]

I've just seen on the Belgian television a professor Jeroen Raes who is doing an investigation about faeces in different countries in the world. He has a nomination for his investigation and is already doing faeces transplantation in the university hospitals in Brussels and Leuven. Is it also a option for tmau 2 ? He is working in the VUB in Brussels .

Flower

[FADworker]

Hi flower

The possibility of completely replacing the bacterial content of ones bowel with faecal material from a donor - bacteriotherapy as it has become known - has received more attention in the past few years mainly, I think, because we're beginning to appreciate much more that the bacteria in our guts - the so-called 'good bacteria' - can interact with us in a truly holistic way. This has been helped by the ability scientists now have of being able to 'read' the DNA sequences of the bacteria present in a stool sample and thus determine the numbers and different types of bacteria present. Our resident bowel bacteria appear to infuence all sorts of things including the regulation of our immune system, obesity, diabetes, etc. As for bacteriotherapy, its been shown to work well with something like a Clostridium difficile infection thats proving difficult to shift with antibiotics.

Would it work for TMAU2? Well first we'd have to determine whether there are indeed particular gut bacteria that are the main culprits involved in converting the TMA precursors in the diet to TMA and whether these bacteria are found in patients with TMAU2 more often than in the general population. If that were the case then selectively removing those bacteria might work in TMAU2 and bacteriotherapy might be an option. Some colleagues and I just had a research grant application, designed to do just these sorts of experiments, turned down so we'll have to wait a little longer to find out.

[kittycat]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... mmies.html
Just in case you don't read the Daily Mail....Dr. D.....
There's obviously more money to be made from obesity........I hope we'll benefit from this kind of research eventually...but more importantly, what do you think of it? Thank you for maintaining an interest, and hope you are well...kcx

[malory]

Hi Dr Dolphin,
I'm very disappointed to learn that your research grant application was turned down. Is there any way that our patient advocacy groups (MEBO Research for example) can become involved in applications such as this? Our community would be very willing to appeal against such decisions and to present strong arguments for carrying out research into our conditions. We contacted some individuals at the Medical Research Council several months ago and were told that they would look into the possibility of researching conditions such as ours ...

Please let me know if there is anything that can be done regarding this
karen.james@meboresearch.org

[smelly]

Im so disappointed to hear your application was rejected. That is exactly the kind of research we should be funding with our tax money. Malory is so right - we should be more vocal in supporting researchers who are eager to explore areas of research that will benefit us. Its our money that is being spent here.

[Weak]

I am unsure what this will solve? I could be wrong infact I probably am but to my knowledge our disorder is caused by the liver not properly breaking down FMO3 or some chemical, and so said chemical is released through our pores etc.. Replacing the guy flora wouldnt change anything because we all have the same guy flora, we just dont have the same livers. Which is why a liver transplate would theorhetically cure us.

[FADworker]

I am unsure what this will solve? I could be wrong infact I probably am but to my knowledge our disorder is caused by the liver not properly breaking down FMO3 or some chemical, and so said chemical is released through our pores etc.. Replacing the guy flora wouldnt change anything because we all have the same guy flora, we just dont have the same livers. Which is why a liver transplate would theorhetically cure us.

TMA is formed by the action of gut bacteria in the lower bowel. You're right in that probaby everyone has bacteria capable of mediating this but it's also known that the numbers and types of bacterial species in the gut do differ between individuals so it's possible that some people may have more 'TMA-producers' than others. Our research is/was aimed at trying to asnswer these sorts of questions. Limiting TMA formation would be one possible therapeutic intervention point and is essentially what dietary/antibiotic strategies attempt to achieve.

[robert123]

I really think this is a fascinating topic, a ft is perhaps the best hope a lot of us on here would have of ever leading a normal life. Perhaps it would not be as useful for primary tmau sufferers but then you never know. For tmau2 though it could be the solution that we have been only dreaming of. Thank you so much Dr Dolphin for persuing this. It's criminal you were turned down for a research grant. if you don't mind me asking what sort of money do you think you would need to conduct this trial, like would it be in the low or high tens of thousands or would it actually require a six figure sum. I know around $35000 was raised on the Nord fund so it would be great if a similar amount could be raised for a project like yours.

[FADworker]

I really think this is a fascinating topic, a ft is perhaps the best hope a lot of us on here would have of ever leading a normal life. Perhaps it would not be as useful for primary tmau sufferers but then you never know. For tmau2 though it could be the solution that we have been only dreaming of. Thank you so much Dr Dolphin for persuing this. It's criminal you were turned down for a research grant. if you don't mind me asking what sort of money do you think you would need to conduct this trial, like would it be in the low or high tens of thousands or would it actually require a six figure sum. I know around $35000 was raised on the Nord fund so it would be great if a similar amount could be raised for a project like yours.

Currenty writing a grant application for £100K to perform a 'pilot' study.

[FADworker]

I really think this is a fascinating topic, a ft is perhaps the best hope a lot of us on here would have of ever leading a normal life. Perhaps it would not be as useful for primary tmau sufferers but then you never know. For tmau2 though it could be the solution that we have been only dreaming of. Thank you so much Dr Dolphin for persuing this. It's criminal you were turned down for a research grant. if you don't mind me asking what sort of money do you think you would need to conduct this trial, like would it be in the low or high tens of thousands or would it actually require a six figure sum. I know around $35000 was raised on the Nord fund so it would be great if a similar amount could be raised for a project like yours.

Currenty writing a grant application for £100K to perform a 'pilot' study.

Didn't get funded. Three reviewers rated it 5/6 one 2/6. The latter killed it. Thinking of where next to send it.