NANJING, CHINA — A future where faecal transplants in China will cure conditions like autism, IBD, arthritis, Parkinson’s disease and even MS was presented by global Faecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) leader Professor Thomas Borody (MD, PhD) in his keynote presentation on non Clostridium difficile conditions, to open the international China Microbiota Transplantation Conference in Nanjing (April 12-14, 2017).
Professor Borody, the Founder and Medical Director of the Centre for Digestive Diseases (CDD) in Sydney, Australia said many diseases have a unique microbiome profile which can be progressively changed to a normal profile with FMT treatment. At the state-of-the-art CDD facility, Prof. Borody and his team have performed more than 12,000 FMTs.
Prof. Borody is at the forefront of FMT research, being the first to report successful treatment of IBD in 1988. He invented, among other therapies, the freeze-dried oral FMT capsule system. He is also recognized as the first physician to successfully formulate the highly effective Triple Therapy that would become the gold standard for treating Helicobacter pylori infection, which can lead to peptic ulcers and stomach cancer, so common in China.
In his keynote presentation, Prof. Borody also shared findings from recent ground-breaking clinical trials in IBD and autism, which he personally designed and remained involved in, as examples of the need for greater FMT clinical trial investment in serious diseases:
— The FOCUS Study – the first adequately powered randomized double blind controlled trial for ulcerative colitis
— The Autism Study – where cognitive improvement change was found after just 5 weeks of treatment
He said more research funding was needed to bring FMT treatment into the mainstream medical world. “The healthy human flora or its components, appears to be the most complete probiotic treatment available today, capable of eradicating ‘bad’ bacteria and spores and supplying ‘good’ bacteria for recolonization of the damaged gut microbiome,” said Prof. Borody.
Prior to the conference Prof. Borody visited the FMT Bank in Nanjing with China’s FMT leader Professor Faming Zhang, who was the first to perform FMT in China and has carried out over 1600 treatments to date. Prof. Borody has collaborated closely with Professor Faming Zhang, who is the Director of Intestinal Diseases Center at the 2nd Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University.
Like the US and Australia, China is facing increasing challenges around the management of diseases, many with rising incidence including IBD, Parkinson’s disease, MS, and many autoimmune conditions.