The theme of this year’s conference is “A Letter to Mankind from the Intestinal Bacteria.”
Bacteria, previously recognized only as a pathogenic source of infection, are now attracting attention for their involvement in various diseases such as cancer, atopic dermatitis, depression, and inflammatory bowel disease.
However, these diseases have exploded in the modern era.
Don’t you feel that this is a letter, a final message, from microorganisms, the most powerful life form in terms of evolutionary speed and adaptability, to us human beings?
- We are pioneers of stool transplants. [Just before the Annual Meeting, a glimpse Vol. 1
- Making Fecal Transplantation a Safe Treatment [Last-minute Glimpse before the Annual Meeting Vol. 2
- Atopy and Brain-Gut Correlation, Intestine-Dermal Correlation [Just before the Annual Meeting, Glimpse Vol. 3].
Today, we would like to introduce Dr. Kawai of the Cute Internal Medicine Clinic in Osaka, Japan.
I have an image of Dr. Kawai as being “just friendly and open-minded,” but what do you actually emphasize in the field?
It is about listening carefully to the patient. You might say that we communicate with them. We actively talk to them and try to create an environment in which they feel comfortable talking to us.
The important thing is to understand the patient’s symptoms correctly. To this end, we try to make detailed checks, such as changing the way we ask if the patient seems to be at a loss for words, or asking repeated questions to get deeper into the story so that the patient can provide more details.
Oh wow. I quoted from your website, and you say some very nice things.
Now, let’s hear your enthusiasm for the 3rd Annual Meeting!
Yes, one parking space is available in front of the clinic.
Oh, I mistakenly asked, “Do you have parking?” I copied and pasted the answer to the question “Do you have a parking space?
This time, you are going to present us with three cases of irritable bowel syndrome!
Let me now introduce Dr. Kawai’s abstract.
Three cases of irritable bowel syndrome that showed improvement by intestinal flora transplantation
The involvement of dysbiosis in many diseases that were previously thought to be unrelated to intestinal bacteria has become clear, and improvement of dysbiosis has begun to be a new avenue for disease treatment. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is being investigated worldwide as a method to improve dysbiosis, but its scientific basis and efficacy have not been sufficiently proven at this point.
The involvement of dysbiosis in many diseases that were previously thought to be unrelated to intestinal bacteria has become clear, and improvement of dysbiosis has begun to be a new avenue for disease treatment. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is being investigated worldwide as a method to improve dysbiosis, but its scientific basis and efficacy have not been sufficiently proven at this point.
Recent studies have found gene polymorphisms such as IL-6, TRL-9, and CDH-1 in IBS, and it is said that adrenocorticotropin-releasing hormone 1 (CRH1) is involved in its pathophysiology, or brain-gut correlation. Recently, the concept has been added that organic acids and other products of intestinal bacterial metabolism affect the pathophysiology of IBS, and that functional bowel diseases such as IBS involve dysbiosis. Last year, however, a double-blind study of FMT with oral capsules in IBS patients in Denmark published a shocking paper showing significant improvement in the placebo group.
In this report, we describe three cases in which dysbiosis in IBS patients was improved by our intestinal flora transplantation, and diarrhea symptoms were clearly improved. All of them had diarrhea type IBS, and the number of FMT cycles were 3 in 2 cases and 6 in 1 case, respectively, and the improvement was maintained after the FMT cycles were completed.
THE NUMBER OF CASES OF INTESTINAL FLORA TRANSPLANTATION PERFORMED FROM JANUARY 2018 TO AUGUST 2019 AT MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS BELONGING TO THE INTESTINAL FLORA TRANSPLANTATION CLINICAL STUDY GROUP FOR IBS WAS 22, INCLUDING THOSE CURRENTLY UNDER TREATMENT, WITH A VERY HIGH EFFICACY RATE OF 84.6% AMONG THE EVALUABLE CASES.
THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF FMT VARIES GREATLY DEPENDING ON THE DONOR SELECTION, PREPARATION METHOD OF TRANSPLANTATION SOLUTION, FREQUENCY, DURATION, PRETREATMENT, AND OTHER STRATEGIES, AND THE INTESTINAL FLORA TRANSPLANTATION OF OUR RESEARCH GROUP IS CONSIDERED TO BE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IN ITS TREATMENT.
We would like to pursue more efficient transplantation methods and accumulate more knowledge on intestinal flora transplantation in the future.
