C. difficile is a bacterial infection that impacts the gastrointestinal system. It can lead to weight loss, diarrhea, dehydration, and even the loss of blood platelets. Megan Newman has had 18 different bouts of the infection since 1985. A doctor herself, Megan knew the impacts of this infection from both personal experience and her own medical knowledge.
Megan’s Story
Megan went through many rounds of antibiotics. They sometimes helped, but there were always residual effects. So, in 2005, she started searching for other options.
She came across something called a fecal transplant. It seemed off the wall. The transplant involves giving a healthy individual’s poop to someone who is ill. This type of procedure was first used as a therapy for dysentery in China. Today, it’s not uncommon to see in veterinary medicine.
But when Megan researched it, she only found 3 scholarly papers documenting its use in humans.
It made sense to her though that transplanting healthy organisms into her upset microbiome might restore normal ecology. She also felt like she didn’t have many more options left to try. So, she found a doctor who agreed to do it. Megan’s partner Sherry was her donor, which helped to reduce the risk of disease.
The Transplant
The sample is mixed with saline and then inserted using a colonoscope. In two weeks, Megan’s diarrhea had stopped. Her appetite had improved and she felt like she was becoming a new person. Although the healing process took time, improvements were seen very quickly.
Unfortunately, in 2011 Megan had to take another heavy bout of antibiotics to combat another medical issue and the C.difficile infection came back. With another transplant, she was feeling better in 3 days, even faster than before.
Becoming More Common
By the time Megan had her second transplant, they were becoming more common. A study published in 2013 changed many professional’s perceptions of the procedure. Since 2013, the FDA has approved its use in C.difficile. It is also working to regulate its use for other conditions.
This transplant is now said to work approximately 90% of the time.
Stool banks, similar to blood banks, began forming. The most notable is called OpenBiome, founded by researchers from MIT and Harvard in 2012. They screen samples for diseases, and help to simplify the process of transplantation.
These developments haven’t come without setbacks, but this comes with the territory of any scientific discovery. One of the setbacks for patients, like all too many therapies, is the cost. Unfortunately, most insurance companies don’t cover this procedure either.
Continued Research
Researchers have found that when patients are infected with a different strain of C.difficile, antibiotics might be the best option. But, if patients keep being infected with the same strain, a transplant might be the best option.
Companies are also working to find alternatives to stool which may be able to used in the transplant process. The future could be customized transplants for individual patients with the exact components that the patient needs to heal their gut. This type of product would also be more likely to have a faster FDA approval considering the fact that products could be standardized and produced in specific batches.
As for Megan, she has now learned that she has an antibody deficiency which has led her to be excessively vulnerable to C.difficile. Now, she has been supplementing immunoglobulin and is doing much better. Nonetheless, she’s grateful for her transplant experiences which gave her better health in the meantime, and time to figure out what other supplements she needed.
You can read more about this novel treatment and Megan’s full story here.
