Pill Containing Bacterial Spores From Human Feces Could Help Treat Clostridium difficile Infections

For people who suffer from C. difficile infection (CDI), fecal microbiota transplant or FMT is an effective treatment. However, said treatment may be described as not for the faint of heart because the procedure involves the transfer of fecal bacteria from a donor's stool to the intestinal tract of the recipient via colonoscopy. 

For some, this method may be too gross to consider.

Several companies are currently looking for other treatments that are less invasive and more standardized. One such treatment is a pill called made by Seres Therapeutics called SER-109, as explained in this article over at Science. This pill is derived from bacterial spores isolated from human feces, and scientists say that this could be safer than FMT.

The SER-109 pill has succeeded in its phase 3 trial, a big milestone in the long and cumbersome drug approval process. Seres Therapeutics plans to apply for FDA approval of the pill sometime this year.

If SER-19 pill succeeds, the methods of treating C. difficile infection would be less gross.

(Image Credit: Biomedical Imaging Unit/ Southampton General Hospital/ Science Source)

#clostridiumdifficile #FMT #Microbiology #CDI #Medicine #feces

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