Quote:

---

... They found that the children in their sample were missing hundreds of the thousand-plus bacterial species that colonise a “neurotypical” person’s intestine. One notable absence was Prevotella. This bug, which makes its living by fermenting otherwise-indigestible carbohydrate polymers in dietary fibre, is abundant in the alimentary canals of farmers and hunter-gatherers in places like Africa, rare in western Europeans and Americans, and nearly nonexistent in children with ASD.

Their discovery led Dr Krajmalnik-Brown and Dr Adams to the idea that restoring the missing bacteria might alleviate autism’s symptoms. Two years ago they tested a process called microbiota transfer therapy (MTT) on 18 autistic children aged between seven and 16. Of their participants 15 were regarded, according to the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, as having “severe” autism.

MTT is a prolonged version of a process already used to treat infection by a bug called Clostridium difficile, which causes life-threatening diarrhoea. It involves transplanting carefully prepared doses of faecal bacteria from a healthy individual to a patient. The researchers gave the children, first, an oral antibiotic, a bowel cleanse and an oral antacid (to ensure that microbes administered by mouth would survive their passage through the stomach). They followed this up with either an oral or a rectal dose of gut bacteria, and then, for seven to eight weeks, a daily antacid-assisted oral dose.

Ten weeks after treatment started the children’s Prevotella levels had multiplied 712-fold. In addition, those of another species, Bifidobacterium, had quadrupled. Bifidobacterium is what is known as a “probiotic” organism—something that acts as a keystone species in the alimentary ecosystem, keeping the mixture of gut bacteria healthy. Now, two years later, although levels of Prevotella have fallen back somewhat, they are still 84 times higher than they were before the experiment started. Levels of Bifidobacterium, meanwhile, have gone up still further—being five times higher than they had been at the beginning of the study. This, says Dr Krajmalnik-Brown, suggests the children’s guts have become healthy environments that can recruit beneficial microbes by themselves.

Crucially, these changes in gut bacteria have translated into behavioural changes. Even 18 weeks after treatment started the children had begun showing reduced symptoms of autism. After two years, only three of them still rated as severe, while eight fell below the diagnostic cut-off point for ASD altogether. These eight thus now count as neurotypical...

---

Quote:

---

The observations that both chemical and genetic inhibition of the shikimate pathway results in reduced cell viability has stimulated interest in the pathway as a possible target for drug therapy in acute microbial infection. It is likely that compounds which can inhibit the activity of shikimate enzymes will not cause cell death of the infecting microbe, but will result in attenuation in a manner analagous to the phenotype of shikimate pathway mutants. As antimicrobials, these compounds may be expected to induce stasis rather than cell lysis or death, allowing the infection to be cleared by the host's immune system. Such an outcome is desirable as it will ameliorate the absolute selective pressure to select for the growth of resistant mutants which would inevitably be the case if the compounds used caused cell death.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I have heard of fecal matter transplant (FMT) literally curing severe cases of Crohns Disease.

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel diease where the intestines literally liquefies and shreds away. The people that FMT cured had undergone numerous aggressive treatments for their condition, starting with antibiotics, then short courses of steroids then longer courses of high=dose steroids, then courses of immuno-suppressive agents like methodtrextae and cyclosporine (an anti-rejection drug) and finally surgery to remove the abscesses and masses of inflammed tissues. Here is a study of the results of using FMT for Crohn's disease ...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04984-z

However, researchers are reporting progress in using FMT (now called microbiota transfer therapy, MTT) in treating autism.

Quote:

---

... They found that the children in their sample were missing hundreds of the thousand-plus bacterial species that colonise a “neurotypical” person’s intestine. One notable absence was Prevotella. This bug, which makes its living by fermenting otherwise-indigestible carbohydrate polymers in dietary fibre, is abundant in the alimentary canals of farmers and hunter-gatherers in places like Africa, rare in western Europeans and Americans, and nearly nonexistent in children with ASD.

Their discovery led Dr Krajmalnik-Brown and Dr Adams to the idea that restoring the missing bacteria might alleviate autism’s symptoms. Two years ago they tested a process called microbiota transfer therapy (MTT) on 18 autistic children aged between seven and 16. Of their participants 15 were regarded, according to the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, as having “severe” autism.

MTT is a prolonged version of a process already used to treat infection by a bug called Clostridium difficile, which causes life-threatening diarrhoea. It involves transplanting carefully prepared doses of faecal bacteria from a healthy individual to a patient. The researchers gave the children, first, an oral antibiotic, a bowel cleanse and an oral antacid (to ensure that microbes administered by mouth would survive their passage through the stomach). They followed this up with either an oral or a rectal dose of gut bacteria, and then, for seven to eight weeks, a daily antacid-assisted oral dose.

Ten weeks after treatment started the children’s Prevotella levels had multiplied 712-fold. In addition, those of another species, Bifidobacterium, had quadrupled. Bifidobacterium is what is known as a “probiotic” organism—something that acts as a keystone species in the alimentary ecosystem, keeping the mixture of gut bacteria healthy. Now, two years later, although levels of Prevotella have fallen back somewhat, they are still 84 times higher than they were before the experiment started. Levels of Bifidobacterium, meanwhile, have gone up still further—being five times higher than they had been at the beginning of the study. This, says Dr Krajmalnik-Brown, suggests the children’s guts have become healthy environments that can recruit beneficial microbes by themselves.

Crucially, these changes in gut bacteria have translated into behavioural changes. Even 18 weeks after treatment started the children had begun showing reduced symptoms of autism. After two years, only three of them still rated as severe, while eight fell below the diagnostic cut-off point for ASD altogether. These eight thus now count as neurotypical...

---

The article goes on to describe a possible mechansim for HOW the bacteria might change brain function, here ...
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/05/30/more-evide
nce-that-autism-is-linked-to-gut-bacteria?utm_source=pocket-newtab

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
As far as I know there's no relationship between vaccines and gut bacteria.

Vaccines cause brain damage in some children, especially the old-fashioned pertussis vaaccine. I knew one child personally (in dear daughter's class) and I knew of one online (child neurology forum) who were vaccinated and suffered brain damage. But the reaction was immediate and catastrophic, there was nothing subtle or questionable about it.

In the case of the child I learned about online, he had a seizure after his first set of vaccines and the doctor persuaded mom that it was just a febrile seizure and that he should get his second set. The second set caused massive seizures and massive brain damage, mom suffered unending guilt and pangs of regret for having been persuaded by doctor, against her better judgment, to go ahead with the second vaccination.

---