Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Pecos_Bill on 09/11/2012 22:12:15
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While teaching in Tomsk, I got bodacious gastroenteritis. (Don't eat the sausage from the street vendors. Go with Shashlik). The doc treated me with a couple of vials ~200 ml. Of culture media containing a filtrate of phagocytes which attack every intestinal pathogen I ever heard of. It worked.
Would it work to treat C. Dificile? Sounds better than a poop pill to recolonize intestinal flora.
PS: It was the best tasting culture media I ever drank. I suggest a coca-cola chaser.
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People have tried recolonizing* gastrointestinal flora as a treatment for C-difficile, but the treatment has to go in the other end (enema) ...
Fecal (faecal) microbiota transplantation (FMT) also known as a stool transplant is the process of transplantation of fecal bacteria from a healthy individual into a recipient as a treatment for patients suffering from Clostridium difficile infection (CDI),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fecal_bacteriotherapy
[ * on this occasion pronounced re-colon-izing [:)] ]
... The doc treated me with a couple of vials ~200 ml. Of culture media containing a filtrate of phagocytes which attack every intestinal pathogen I ever heard of. It worked.
People do recover from gastroenteritis without treatment, so your recovery was not necessarily due to the unorthodox treatment. [ are you sure "doc" was a real doctor of medicine ?, your story reminded me of stem-cell scams ... http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-6402854.html ]
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Phagocytes? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phagocyte)
What exactly did you eat?
Phagocytes would essentially be white blood cells & macrophages. From Humans? From animals?
It sounds like an odd treatment. Getting the white blood cells where they are not normally at.
Would they survive the stomach? The Coca Cola?
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Rats. I meant to sat bacteriophages instead of phagocytes
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Bacterial Viruses?
Interesting.
I would think that one could be highly selective with the targeted bacteria. At least with the right phages.
Keep in mind that a portion of the population is naturally colonized with Clostridium difficile. So, the presence of the bacteria is not always pathogenic, although perhaps certain overgrowth conditions would be problematic.