Pill developed with fecal bacteria against intestinal inflammation

A research team from Geneva has developed a new method to encapsulate faecal bacteria. Severe intestinal infections can be treated with the new small pills containing faecal bacteria.

Until now, a so-called stool transplant was necessary in patients with severely damaged intestinal flora after infection with the bacterium Clostridium difficile, the University of Geneva (Unige) announced on Tuesday. One donor’s gut contents, which contain healthy bacteria, are transplanted into the damaged gut of another.

The processed stool is then given to the recipient through a nasogastric tube, as a rectal enema, or through a colonoscopy. There are also oral capsules, but their size (8.2 mm wide and 23.3 mm long) and dosage (30 to 40 capsules over two days) make them very demanding to use, they said.

Scientists from the University of Geneva, in collaboration with the University Hospital of Lausanne (Chuv), have now developed a new, simpler technology. “Our technique makes it possible to encapsulate the live microorganisms in the donor’s stool in small spheres of about two millimeters that are ingested orally,” said lead author Adèle Rakotonirina in the statement from the University of Geneva.

“These brownish globules are easy to disperse in a liquid or a pleasant edible food. You have no taste. So they can make treatment a lot easier, especially for children,” says study leader Eric Allémann of the University of Geneva.

However, the new technology is not yet ready for use and needs to be clinically tested first. It was presented to experts in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2023.122961 (oee/sda)