Autism & Fecal Microbiota Transfer Therapy - MTT - FMT - Update

James B. Adams, Ph.D., is a President’s Professor at Arizona State University, where he directs the autism/Asperger’s research program, though he originally taught chemical and materials engineering there. Dr. Adams also holds a post at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. He is also the president of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix, the co-chair of the Autism Research Institute’s scientific advisory committee, and has received the Autism Service Award from the Greater Phoenix chapter of the Autism Society of America. In this episode, he reports on microbiota transfer therapy.

This CBJ/301 is a republication of CBJ/214 and is selected because it reveals a most interesting development in Autism Treatment directly related to gut microbiota and his research with FMTT Fecal Microbiota Transfer Therapy. Must listen!

Photo by Artak Petrosyan on Unsplash

Reference Details For MTT: Article Abstract

Microbiota Transfer Therapy alters the gut ecosystem and improves gastrointestinal and autism symptoms: an open-label study.

Publication

Microbiome - Jan. 23, 2017

Author(s)

Dae-Wook Kang, James B. Adams, Ann C. Gregory, Thomas Borody, Lauren Chittick5,15, Alessio Fasano, Alexander Khoruts, Elizabeth Geis, Juan Maldonado, Sharon McDonough-Means, Elena L. Pollard, Simon Roux, Michael J. Sadowsky, Karen Schwarzberg Lipson, Matthew B. Sullivan, J. Gregory Caporaso and Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown

Background

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are complex neurobiological disorders that impair social interactions and communication and lead to restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. The causes of these disorders remain poorly understood, but gut microbiota, the 1013 bacteria in the human intestines, have been implicated because children with ASD often suffer gastrointestinal (GI) problems that correlate with ASD severity.

Several previous studies have reported abnormal gut bacteria in children with ASD. The gut microbiome-ASD connection has been tested in a mouse model of ASD, where the microbiome was mechanistically linked to abnormal metabolites and behavior.

Similarly, a study of children with ASD found that oral non-absorbable antibiotic treatment improved GI and ASD symptoms, albeit temporarily.

Here, a small open-label clinical trial evaluated the impact of Microbiota Transfer Therapy (MTT) on gut microbiota composition and GI and ASD symptoms of 18 ASD-diagnosed children.

Results

MTT involved a 2-week antibiotic treatment, a bowel cleanse, and then an extended fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) using a high initial dose followed by daily and lower maintenance doses for 7–8 weeks.

The Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale revealed an approximately 80% reduction of GI symptoms at the end of treatment, including significant improvements in symptoms of constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, and abdominal pain.

Conclusions

This exploratory, extended-duration treatment protocol thus appears to be a promising approach to alter the gut microbiome and virome and improve GI and behavioral symptoms of ASD. Improvements in GI symptoms, ASD symptoms, and the microbiome all persisted for at least 8 weeks after treatment ended, suggesting a long-term impact.

Similarly, clinical assessments showed that behavioral ASD symptoms improved significantly and remained improved 8 weeks after treatment ended. Bacterial and phagedeep sequencing analyses revealed successful partial engraftment of donor microbiota and beneficial changes in the gut environment. Specifically, overall bacterial diversity and the abundance of Bifidobacterium, Prevotella, and Desulfovibrio among other taxa increased following MTT, and these changes persisted after treatment stopped (followed for 8 weeks).

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References

• Full text of this article: https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-016-0225-7
• Download PDF of this article here.
• Video from OpenBiome on Fecal Microbiota Transplant - FMT
• Autism Global Summit for both Parents, Public, and Professionals - Led by Dr. Kurt Woeller [With Parker presentation on medical treatment for Executive Function with Spectrum challenges.]
• Autism Recovery Training for Professionals - Dr. Woeller Summit Expert Insights
• Autism Guest Experts - Multiple Episodes Collected Here: CBJ/153
• An interesting recent article from NYT with additional useful links [added 2-2-19] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/health/microbiome-brain-behavior-dementia.html

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 Video On Dr. Adam's MTT Research - 10:57 min

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Thanks

Thanks, Dr. Adams, for joining us here at CBJ to review these interesting insights regarding gut and brain connections in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

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