Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) is a "relatively new" treatment that is already being used effectively for specific health issues such as IBS, Crohn's Disease, Clostridium Difficile, Ulcerative Colitis, Obesity and Autism. It is also currently in testing for other health issues including Parkinson's Disease (PD) with at least two trials already completed.
FMT is the process of taking the stool from a healthy donor and transplanting it into a patient with a perturbed gut microbiota for the purpose of trying to shift the gut microbiota away from an over abundance of pathogenic bacteria toward a healthier balance with more health promoting bacteria.
You may be wondering how changing the gut microbiota can help a disease like PD where most of the problems seem to originate in the brain? Previous use of FMT has shown that changing the gut microbiota to a healthier balance of bacteria can have positive health effects in other areas of the body including the brain.
In a study completed last year(2020), they used two methods of delivering the stool transplant into the PwP which included nasointestinal transplant and transplant via colonoscopy. Of these two methods, transplant via the colon was shown to be superior to the nasointestinal delivery. This preliminary study showed that FMT in PwP could improve both motor and non motor symptoms! The colonic group showed significant improvement in symptoms that lasted a minimum of 4 months to over 24 months in two patients while the nasointestinal group saw little benefit and what benefit that was seen, was short lived. As the research into this area advances, it seems likely that scientists will be able to synthesize the correct amount and type of bacteria that these FMTs deliver and this should eliminate the whole process of having to find acceptable donors, thus greatly simplifying and expediting the entire process.
In this first study they used multiple testing systems for PD to give a better and broader idea of how the patients symptoms improved significantly. These testing methods included PSQI, HAMD, HAMA, PDQ-39, NMSQ and UPDRS-III which are testing systems to measure both motor and non motor symptoms, and all of these testing systems significantly declined after FMT. In these tests, lower scores represent less symptoms while higher scores represent increased symptoms. UPDRS-lll is the "motor examination" aspect of the UPDRS testing system and asks 14 questions of which the patient is supposed to give a numbered answer of 0-4 with an answer of zero meaning that that symptom does not apply to the patient and an answer of 4 being the worst. Once all 14 questions have been answered, the numbered answers are totaled and that total is your score for the UPDRS-lll motor exam.
Adverse events (AEs) were mild and self limiting and included flatulence, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Part of the reason for using multiple testing systems is to try to improve scoring accuracy and possibly reduce the subjectivity inherent in some of these testing systems. Here is a link to the full study :
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Here is a chart that shows how the test scores looked before FMT and then 3 months after FMT and it should be noted that the 5 participants that were treated with FMT via the nasointestinal route all faired poorly compared to the 10 who received FMT via the colonic route so this 3 month score would likely look even better had all participants been given colonic FMT.
Items (n = 12) Baseline/ 3 mo/ Change from Baseline/ p-value
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PSQI 12.41 +/- 3.84 /8.16 +/-3.01 /4.25+/- 3.27 .001
HAMD 22.41 +/- 7.11 10.08 +/- 4.62 12.33 +/- 6.42 <.001
HAMA 21.08 +/- 8.96 9.58 +/-6.77 11.50 +/- 7.29 <.001
PDQ-39 52.16 +/- 18.37 25.91+/- 13.48 26.25 +/- 17.10 <.001
NMSQ 15.16 +/- 3.12 9.83 +/- 3.99 5.33 +/- 3.28 <.001
UPDRS lll 41.75 +/- 14.66 24.00 +/- 7.76 17.75 +/- 11.29 <.001
As you can see, the 3 month scores compared to the baseline scores, were significantly reduced. For an example that many of you may be familiar with, look at the UPDRS lll score at baseline (41.75) compared to the UPDRS lll at 3 months (24), this is a significant reduction of 17.75 points in 3 months or approximately a 40% reduction in the test score, which translated to both improved motor and non-motor function.
In this next study, done this year (2021), they tested 11 patients with PD and assigned them to a single FMT procedure at the beginning of the study and tested them at 6 weeks and 12 weeks using multiple tests used for PD testing to determine changes in motor and non-motor symptoms. These tests included Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) grade, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS ll) score, and the Non-Motion Symptom Questionnaire (NMSS) were used to assess improvements in motor and non-motor symptoms. PAC-QOL score and Wexner constipation score were used to assess the patient's constipation symptoms. All patients were tested by the small intestine breath hydrogen test, performed before and after FMT.
This study showed how the patients improved, as did their gut microbiota and test scores, over the 12 week testing period. This study also shows how the gut microbiota evolved over that 12 week testing period, which I found interesting and useful information because it showed just how potent FMT is because the participants were given one transplant that contained less than 2 ounces of stool in a warm saline solution at the beginning of the study period and that small quantity was able to effect positive gut microbiota changes in the participants over the entire 12 week period of the test. Here is a graph that shows how the test scores changed for the participants from before FMT to 6 weeks after and until 12 weeks after FMT.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
In this study, instead of testing UPDRS lll, they tested UPDRS ll which measures the patients ability to do daily activities and involves 13 questions that you rate 0 - 4, total up all of the answer scores and this gives your UPDRS ll score. Here is a graph of the testing results of the study. From this graph, the significant test score improvements are clear.
Outcome measures in the participants
Before FMT / At6 weeks / At 12 weeks After FMT / p-value
BMI (mm/kg2)22.01 ± 1.73/23.52 ± 1.6524.65 ± 1.09
H-Y Grade**2.27 ± 0.751.45 ± 0.821.09 ± 0.830.0023
UPDRSII Score**(11.36 ± 4.70) (6.18 ± 3.60) (4.90 ± 3.33) .0036
NMSS**22.36 ± 7.0512.55 ± 5.5410.36 ± 4.540.003
PAC-QOL score**102.55 ± 5.0551.27 ± 6.7143.45 ± 5.34< 0.0001
Wexner constipation score*11.63 ± 3.228.16 ± 2.626.22 ± 1.030.0231
HCY (μmol/L)**15.85 ± 2.8912.74 ± 2.0511.22 ± 1.850.002
Alb (g/L)38.49 ± 3.9240.38 ± 4.3541.62 ± 4.26
UA (μmol/L)306.13 ± 75.94282.09 ± 65.31274.91 ± 55.73
OCTT (min)**150.91 ± 12.21NA105.45 ± 20.18< 0.0001
From this chart you can see that the UPDRS ll scoring was 11.36 + or - 4.7 prior to FMT and then at 6 weeks after FMT it was 6.18 + or -3.6 followed by 4.9 + or - 3.33 at 12 weeks. This is a significant reduction in this test score of ability to do daily activities of greater than 50%. On the other tests (PAC-QOL, NMSS, H-Y Grade) that are supposed to determine improvements or deficits in ability to do daily activities, over the 12 week period they also showed at least a 50% improvement in test scoring which results in significant improvement to do daily activities.
It is worth mentioning that all of the patients enrolled in this small study also were constipated and had Small intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth or SIBO and both of these conditions improved very significantly over the study period.
Although these two studies are small, they tend to show the significance of improving the gut microbiota bacterial content and this in turn results in significant improvement of motor and non-motor symptoms as well as SIBO, which is thought to be active in 25% to 50% of PwP, depending on the study that you reference, and the very significant reduction in constipation which is a factor in many PwP. FMT is not currently approved for PD and that may not happen for another 3 years or so, but these positive study results may help push the process along expeditiously. The fact that FMT is already in use for 6 other health issues in humans should also help push FMT along for PD and other diseases where a perturbed gut microbiota is known to be very common.
I am not aware of other adjunctive treatments that can do what FMT can in terms of reducing these test results to this extent and the consequent symptom improvements associated with those reductions and this is not talking about something that is 10 or 20 years down the road. In some areas of the world, you may even be able to get FMT done sooner.
For anyone interested in looking at or self testing the UPDRS testing, here is an online link where you can see or answer the questions to any section or all sections for free :
Ideally it would be best to do these questionnaires with your neurologist or MDS if they are willing.
Here is what an early report of FMT looked like in a 71 year old PwP in 2019 :
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
This case report illustrates how quickly the science of FMT is evolving when compared to the 2020 and 2021 studies above.
I will update this post if any new data comes available that seems relevant.
Art