"Fecal Pill" Tested for Peanut Allergy, Participants More Tolerant of Peanuts

JAKARTA - Fecal transplantation from people without food allergies is being tested as a therapy for peanut allergy sufferers. In a small clinical trial of 15 adults, participants became more able to tolerate peanuts several months after undergoing the therapy.

The Independent, quoted on Sunday, August 9, reported that researchers used 36 frozen stool capsules that were drunk to move good bacteria into the participants' intestines.

This therapy is often dubbed "poop pills", although what is used is processed fecal matter to move intestinal microorganisms.

"This important study is the first to show that microbiome-based therapy can help improve food allergy conditions in humans, while revealing how gut bacteria, their metabolites, and the immune system work together to influence the response to treatment," said Dr. Rima Rachid of Boston Children's Hospital.

The microbiome is the collection of microorganisms, including bacteria, that live in the human body, especially in the digestive tract.

In the United States, about 33 million people have at least one type of food allergy. Almost five million of them have peanut allergies.

Peanut allergy can trigger hives, vomiting, blood pressure drops to dangerous levels, and swelling of the airways that makes sufferers difficult to breathe. In severe cases, this reaction can be fatal if not treated immediately.

In this study, participants who took antibiotics before transplantation showed better results.

Researchers also found that participants who responded to the therapy, mostly men, had increased levels of bile salts. Bile salts are produced by the liver and help the body break down fat.

Bile salt metabolism is associated with increased regulatory cells of the immune system that help protect the body from allergic reactions.

The researchers then transferred gut bacteria from the participants' stool samples to mice. Bacteria from participants who responded to therapy also protected mice from allergies to egg proteins.

Talal Chatila, an immunologist from Harvard Medical School who was one of the study's authors, told Nature that the use of different allergy-triggering substances in the mouse experiments suggests that the transplant may work for other allergies besides peanuts.

Rachid is now leading a new study in adolescents. The study also tests a purified form of the microbe that can be stored in a home refrigerator.

However, this therapy is still far from widespread use.

Alexander Khoruts, a gastroenterologist from the University of Minnesota who is working with Rachid, told Nature that although research funding is sufficient, the process for the bacteria to get regulatory approval is estimated to take about 10 years.