Gastrointestinal problems including chronic constipation, diarrhea, and/or abdominal pain are common in children and adults with ASD, and are resistant to standard treatments. We investigated a novel method of treatment, Microbiota Transfer Therapy. This therapy involved 2 weeks of oral vancomycin, a bowel cleanse, and 7-8 weeks of microbiota transplant. It was an open-label phase 1 study with a follow-up at two years post-treatment. We proved that with this treatment, the gut microbiome was changed, and that important changes including increased microbial diversity remained after two years. As a result of this microbiome change, at the end of treatment there was an 80% reduction in GI symptoms, a 23% reduction in autism symptoms, and an increase in microbiome diversity.
At a two year follow-up, most of the GI improvements remained (59% reduction compared to baseline), and there was a 47% reduction in ASD symptoms. Five factors in the early medical history of the children with ASD were different compared to controls, and likely contributed to the GI symptoms.
MTT is a promising therapy for treating GI disorders for autism, and randomized double-blind placebo-controlled studies are underway to further investigate this treatment.
Sponsored by NirvanaBiome and the Microbiome Foundation.
Hosted by CosmosID.
Dr. Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown is the director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes and a Professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and The Built Environment, at Arizona State University. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech. She was awarded an NSF CAREER award, was selected Fulton Engineering Exemplar Faculty, and was recently awarded Arizona Researcher of the year by AZBio and highly cited researcher in her field by Web of Science. She is a pioneer in research on gut microbiome and autism. She is author of 4 patents and more than 115 peer-reviewed publications. She specializes on molecular microbial ecology for bioremediation, the use of microbial systems for bioenergy production, and the human intestinal microbial ecology and its relationship to obesity, bariatric surgery, metabolism, and autism.
James B. Adams, Ph.D., is the Director of the Autism/Asperger’s Research Program at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the medical causes of autism and how to treat and prevent it including the areas of nutrition (vitamins/minerals, essential fatty acids, carnitine, digestive enzymes, special diets), oxidative stress, gut problems, gut bacteria, toxic metals, and seizures. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including over 50 related to autism. He is also the President of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix, the President of the Autism Nutrition Research Center, the co-leader of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Autism Research Institute, and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Neurological Health Foundation. He has an adult daughter with autism.
If you want to know more about the uses and development of methodologies for microbiome studies produced and supported by the CosmosID team, check out the webinars we organised some time ago for experts and other interested parties.
#10 – Utilising Metagenomics in Early to Late-Stage R&D
#9 – Autism and the Microbiome
#8 – Microbiota Transplant for Autism (Current page)
#7 – Development of a Universal Detection Methodology for Foodborne Microbial Pathogens
#6 – Host-microbes Symbioses in Autistic Spectrum Disorders
#5 – Unlocking the Gut-Skin Axis
#4 – Unlocking the Oral Microbiome
#3 – Standards for Microbiome and Metagenomics
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