Fecal transplant, or also known as fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), is the procedure of transferring stool from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract to treat recurrent C. difficile colitis. It can help replenish bacterial balance after antibiotics kill off too many good bacteria.
Fecal transplant has cured various diseases in the past, like curing the man with the auto-brewery syndrome and transformed melanoma non-responders to immunotherapy to responders. Now, scientists are looking at its use as COVID-19 treatment after two men in Poland who undergo the transplant reported improved symptoms from the infection.
Doctors are now planning to conduct a clinical trial to find whether fecal transplants could help stop the infection from its tracks.
A patient is injected with a syringe filled with stool to treat patients with serious infections of the colon by Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), also known as Gut Flora Transplant (GFT), at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) in Clermont-Ferrand, central France on July 26, 2019. (Photo by Thierry Zoccolan / AFP) (Photo by THIERRY ZOCCOLAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Fecal Transplant Effective in Two COVID-19 Patients in Poland
The study, entitled "Rapid resolution of COVID-19 after fecal microbiota transplantation," published in Gut under BMJ Journals, described the cases of 80-year-old and 19-year-old male patients in Poland who received a fecal transplant for severe C. difficile colitis.
Doctors wrote that the two patients were at risk of getting severe COVID-19 because the 80-year-old man had several comorbidities. The 19-year-old patient was immunosuppressed, which makes him struggle to fight the infection.
According to Daily Mail, both patients only experienced mild infections, which led the doctors to think that the fecal transplant could have mitigated the COVID-19 symptoms.
Moreover, the researchers said that the older man received the FMT because he had pneumonia and sepsis, and C. difficile colitis. But two days after receiving the transplant, his COVID-19 symptoms vanished. But doctors also said that the patient received remdesivir and antibody treatment that might have also helped the patient.
On the other hand, the teenager also recovered from the virus without taking any medications. Doctors noted that there are two other cases of COVID-19 patients who received a fecal transplant and rapidly recovered from the infection.
Doctors think that changes in the gut microbiome of patients may have benefited the immune system that led to less severe COVID-19 symptoms and fast recovery.
ALSO READ: Fecal Transplant Cures Belgian Man With Auto-Brewery Syndrome
Fecal Transplant Improves Gut Microbiomes
According to ScienceAlert, it is possible for fecal transplants to boost the immune system in COVID-19 patients, which trigger several molecular changes due to the presence of certain bacteria.
The study, entitled "Gastrointestinal disturbance and effect of fecal microbiota transplantation in discharged COVID-19 patients," published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports in February 2021, suggests that the gut's microbiome can impact the respiratory system, which boosts the lungs' resistance against infections like COVID-19.
As of now, there is still little knowledge about gut impacts on the immune system or how fecal transplants could contribute to the process. Nonetheless, this is an interesting topic and worthy to investigate whether this kind of treatment could really help clear viral infections in the human body. The team is now recruiting participants for their clinical trial to confirm the benefits of fecal transplant on a COVID-19 patient.
RELATED ARTICLE: Fecal Transplant Transformed Melanoma Non-Responders to Immunotherapy Into Responders
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