Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Using Fecal Microbiota Transplantation: A Step Forward?

[Efficacy of Fecal Microbial Transplantation for Improving Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome - A Pilot Study for Voluntary Participants in Korea]

Background/Aims

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic, intractable functional disease. It is inferred that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) may have favorable efficacy on IBS by gut microbial modification. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of FMT for improving severity in patients with IBS.

Methods

Patients who voluntarily wanted FMT were consecutively enrolled. The study subjects were classified by subtype of IBS by the ROME IV criteria. The IBS-symptom severity score (IBS-SSS) was used to evaluate the efficacy of FMT. The subjects completed a questionnaire at baseline week 0 and weeks 4, 12, and 24 after FMT. FMT was performed by esophagogastroduodenoscopy using frozen stock stool solution. If the follow-up IBS-SSS achieved less than 75 points, it was defined as remission. Adverse events were also gathered.

Results

Twenty-one subjects were included from October 2023 until July 2024. There were 7 patients with IBS-C, 10 patients with IBS-D, 2 patients with IBS-M, and 2 patients with IBS-U type. The mean SSS of the IBS-D group was 244.0±64.2, which was higher than IBS-C group (192.9±85.4). Alleviations in IBS-SSS after FMT were observed in 19 subjects (19/21, 90.5%) at week 4. At week 12, 71.4% (5/7) in the IBS-C group and 20.0% (2/10) in the IBS-D group achieved remission. The remission states were maintained up to week 24 and no serious adverse events were reported.

Conclusions

FMT might be an effective treatment option for improving symptoms of mild to moderate IBS, especially IBS-C.

Irritable bowel syndrome: treatment based on pathophysiology and biomarkers

OBJECTIVE

To appraise the evidence that pathophysiological mechanisms and individualised treatment directed at those mechanisms provide an alternative approach to the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

DESIGN

A PubMED-based literature review of mechanisms and treatment of IBS was conducted independently by the two authors, and any differences of perspective or interpretation of the literature were resolved following discussion.

RESULTS

The availability of several noninvasive clinical tests can appraise the mechanisms responsible for symptom generation in IBS, including rectal evacuation disorders, abnormal transit, visceral hypersensitivity or hypervigilance, bile acid diarrhoea, sugar intolerances, barrier dysfunction, the microbiome, immune activation and chemicals released by the latter mechanism. The basic molecular mechanisms contributing to these pathophysiologies are increasingly recognised, offering opportunities to intervene with medications directed specifically to food components, receptors and potentially the microbiome. Although the evidence supporting interventions for each mechanism is not at the same level of proof, the current state-of-the-art provides the opportunity to advance the practice from treatment based on symptoms to individualisation of treatment guided by pathophysiology and clinically identified biomarkers.

CONCLUSION

These advances augur well for the implementation of evidence-based individualised treatment for patients with IBS based on actionable biomarkers or psychological disturbances.

Update on treatment of abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome: A narrative review

The objectives of this narrative review are to update readers on the current state-of-the-art regarding diverse approaches for the treatment of pain, global symptoms, or adequate relief in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The article appraises medications, dietary interventions including low fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, and monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP) diet, fecal microbial transplantation (FMT), electrical approaches, and behavioral therapies including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), gut-directed hypnotherapy (GDH), mindfulness, and open-label placebo. Current evidence demonstrates only modest benefit in global IBS symptoms and pain relief. A future approach that identifies pathophysiological mechanisms of IBS through validated biomarkers has the potential to individualize treatment of patients rather than sequential therapeutic trial and error approaches.