by GMFH Editing Team
Between January 2010 and April 2015, 901 patients with CDI were identified, with a gradual increase over time (2010= 54 patients; 2011= 116 patients; 2012= 200 patients; 2013= 212 patients; 2014= 268 patients; January-April 2015= 71 patients). Thirty-five patients with severe cases underwent FMT: 7 in 2013, 16 in 2014, and 12 between January and April 2015.
A meta-analysis of 12 randomized, controlled trials, with a total of 3720 participants, examined the effectiveness and safety of probiotics in preventing acute upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in children, adults, and older people.
For Dr. Vanni Bucci, assistant professor of computational biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, new treatments are not the only way to make progress in medicine.
After intestinal anastomosis -- resection and reconnection of intestinal segments -- the intestine sometimes fails to heal. Leakage, peritonitis, and sepsis can result: in other words, anastomotic leak. The underlying cause of this complication is unknown, but evidence is growing that intestinal microbes play a role.
Many disorders are associated with impaired function of the gut barrier. The gut microbiota regulates gut barrier function, and previous research has shown that modulation of gut microbiota shows promise for enhancing barrier integrity.
by Kristina Campbell
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which is up to 90% effective in treating recurrent Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection, may or may not be an effective treatment for other conditions.
An article published in Science Advances studied the microbiome of Yanomami subjects in the Amazon with no previous record of contact with non-Yanomami - the most isolated community ever explored in the microbiome literature.
by Kristina Campbell
Lora Hooper is a professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas), and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her lab studies immune mechanisms that prevent bacteria from crossing intestinal barriers and entering host tissues.
by Kristina Campbell
Dr. Mark Smith is a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of OpenBiome, a nonprofit organization focused on expanding safe access to fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT).
Dr. Yasmine Belkaid of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), is chief of the Mucosal Immunology section and co-director of the trans-NIH metaorganisms initiative. Her work explores mechanisms at barrier sites (i.e.
