Another FMT Study Showing Benefit In People With PD With Just One Transplantation Over One Year With Lasting Results

[chartist]

Previously I mentioned that I am waiting for the results from the Helsinki FMT/PD trial which has completed last summer, but not yet released their results. I wrote to the spokesperson for the trial last year to get an idea of when the study results would be released and he said they were hoping for the release of study results by Fall of last year. Well clearly that did not happen so I wrote to him again last week to see if he had an update.

He just wrote back and said they are still under review by a journal and he doesn't currently know when it will be released, but he mentioned another FMT/PD study that I had heard of quite awhile back, but had forgotten about, the Belgian study that was recently published.

Here is a link to that trial and its results :

thelancet.com/journals/ecli...

This randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial (RCT) used nasojejunal FMT which is delivered via tube through the nose if I remember correctly. This is a bit surprising as in other FMT studies it appeared to be significantly less effective than colonoscopy delivery and possibly even capsule delivery, but this study was started in 2020 which may be the reason for this delivery method.

This RCT had 46 participants that were divided into two groups, those that received healthy donor FMT and those that received their own FMT as the placebo group. FMT was given only once at the beginning of the RCT. The trial was 12 months long and reviews were done at baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months.

Here is a relevant quote from the RCT :

' Our findings suggested a single FMT induced mild, but long-lasting beneficial effects on motor symptoms in patients with early stage PD. '

My takeaway from this is that although these are quite positive results, the FMT delivery method used in this trial has already been shown to be significantly less effective than other delivery methods and thus likely limited the potential beneficial effects of the FMT in this trial. This trial also added further confirmation to the idea that FMT results can be long lasting, even with just one transplant over a period of a year or more. Although this information is useful, the application of FMT more than one time per year seems likely to be more effective and delivery of the FMT through other more effective methods also seems likely to have better effects. The larger participant cohort of this study compared to the previous studies emanating from China tends to add more confirmation to the results obtained in those trials.

FMT continues to suggest that it is a viable, very safe, adjunctive treatment option for PwP and multiple other diseases and health issues as I discussed here :

healthunlocked.com/cure-par...

I will continue to keep an eye out for the Helsinki trial results and report them here as soon as they come available.

Art

[Smittybear7]

Thanks for the info!

[chartist in reply to Smittybear7]

You're welcome!

Art

[Boscoejean]

Filip Scheperjans?

[chartist]

Yes, that is who I contacted and who replied to my questions.

Art

[PDTom]

parkinsonclub.de/en/microbi...

[chartist in reply to PDTom]

Thank you for the link!

Art

[Grumpy77]

Well done and thanks 👍🏿

[Ctime]

Projected evolution of FMT in emojis.

😷?

💩🤔 -> 💩👍 -> 💩🥰 -> 💩🤑

🤣

[Turnipbarrow]

thank you for the update. I’ll look forward to more info.

[chartist in reply to Turnipbarrow]

Me too!

Art

[Boscoejean]

since it seems like FMT is only approved for Cdiff in the US it seems like it might be hard to access without traveling to an area where it is available

[chartist in reply to Boscoejean]

Perhaps MJFF might be able to alter that trajectory by funding a high quality US/FMT/PD trial. Well, we can dream, can't we?

Art

[Boscoejean in reply to chartist]

yes we can - then hope for more research on what it is that is causing the microbiome to change to an environment that fosters parkinsons

I do wonder if food poisoning could precede this

[MBAnderson]

How about the poor participants who got their own fecal material (placebo) in their nose?

[chartist in reply to MBAnderson]

Hopefully, once the trial was up and the results known, they were offered the active treatment?

Art

[MBAnderson]

Art,

You said in the thread you linked that, "Currently, ... you will be able to find a doctor in the world who will give you FMT treatment for PD."

Do you know where?

[chartist in reply to MBAnderson]

I am aware of one forum member who was able to get FMT in Singapore. China seems to be the most progressive when it comes to FMT. On a related note, the newer version of FMT, WMT, is not available in Singapore yet, as far as I know.

Art

[JayPwP]

Hello Art,

Don't you think all these improvement studies defy the dead cells theory?

I mean if the disease severity is proportional to the number of dead cells, then there can be stopped progression, which means stoppage of further destruction of cells.

Improvement clearly means going from B to A

Progression - A to B

Stopped - B

Improvement - B to A

[chartist in reply to JayPwP]

Jay,

My interest in melatonin takes me in a different direction. I think that many people with PD have symptoms years before actually being diagnosed and may not realize what the symptoms are until they finally are diagnosed. I've heard people say that they have had these symptoms for years and some times as much as 10 years or more before being diagnosed. I think melatonin may play a role in why the symptoms can come on very gradually until melatonin levels decline to a level where melatonin can no longer effectively maintain mitochondrial homeostasis and control the elevated ROS and RNS seen in PD, allowing the disease to progress more freely.

Melatonin also helps to maintain the gut microbiome via its potent antioxidative stress effects and anti inflammatory effects while also increasing SCFAs in the gut which also helps maintain the gut microbiome, but again, declining melatonin levels with age plus PD is likely much less effective at maintaining a healthful gut microbiome as witnessed in most people with PD with perturbed gut microbiomes and other age related diseases. This may also help explain why FMT has shown very significant benefit in PwPs via restoration of a more healthful gut microbiome which is then capable of producing more melatonin in the gut via restoration of significantly more healthful levels of SCFAs which in turn increase gut microbiome melatonin levels as well as melatonin receptors which in turn increases more gut SCFAs. This ultimately reduces PD symptoms and improves QOL with FMT.

It is just my opinion, but I feel that given the known and proven effects of melatonin and its receptors, in the brain and gut, it makes sense to me that it should at a bare minimum, significantly slow disease progression as should FMT.

Art

[JayPwP in reply to chartist]

Art,

I am not disputing the benefits of Melatonin and SCFA.

Maybe you did not understand my comment.

[chartist in reply to JayPwP]

I thought I did understand your question and responded based on that understanding, but apparently I didn't understand your question. You said the following

' I mean if the disease severity is proportional to the number of dead cells, then there can be stopped progression, which means stoppage of further destruction of cells. '

I don't think that stopping progression necessarily equates to complete disease reversal because if there is cellular damage or other types of damage that is not repairable and manifests as symptoms, those symptoms may persist even though disease progression has been arrested. I don't think stopping disease progression always results in complete disease reversal. I think it is possible that if you stop disease progression, you could remain the same as you currently are. That is one reason why I reference melatonin because of its known methods of action have shown the ability to actually repair and protect parts of the human body including the brain. Not all parts, but many. I think that is why melatonin is naturally occurring in humans, animals and plants and its receptors are found throughout the body while melatonin is produced in each mitochondria of cells. I believe melatonin does its best to maintain homeostasis in humans, but the problem is that melatonin levels decline with age and even more so with PD, so with age, melatonin loses this capacity to maintain homeostasis and I believe this is a major contributing factor to age related diseases, of which PD is one.

I hope this answered your question.

Art