Human Microbiota Transfer.
Gastrointestinal diseases, such as Clostridium Difficile infection (CDI) are dangerous and serious. They affect thousands of Hong Kong residents, and hundreds of thousands of residents in other Asian cities. These patients are subjected to painful daily symptoms.
Perhaps you have heard of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT). This novel clinical therapy was researched and published about in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2013 in a medical clinical trial. In this trial, doctors successfully treated severe recurrent CDI in 15 out of 16 patients in Holland indicating a 94 percent cure rate as compared to patients who received antibiotic treatment which achieved a 31 percent cure rate.
With an FMT, clinicians and stool banks take stool from healthy donors and process the stool into a homogenized solution for implantation into a sick patient. Processed FMT treatments are stored at -80C to preserve the unique bacterial community of the donor. The usage of an FMT is thought to restore the protective bacterial diversity that is lost when a bacterial unbalance occurs due to antibiotic overuse or a potentially pathogenic cause.
FMT vs. HMT PROCESSING
Human Microbiota Transplant, or HMT®, is the next generation of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT), a novel treatment in clinical use that is shown to be over 90% effective for treating C. difficile infection in patients who are unresponsive to traditional antibiotic therapy.
HMT’s add several steps to the processing methodology of an FMT to remove a much larger portion of the undigested food particulate in the feces and to preserve as much of the bacterial community as possible.
FMT
Basic Donor Screening: Finding stool donors based on a basic list of 10-15 infectious diseases exclusions.
HMT
Rigorous Donor Screening:
- Finding stool donors based on a strict list of 60 disease biomarker exclusions
- Next Generation Whole Genome Sequencing to ensure key cornerstone bacterial species presence, diversity comparison against the average population, and additional buffer against presence of pathogenic bacteria and organisms
FMT
Simple Container
HMT
- Specialized Collection Container
- Fast Timed Processing Protocol
FMT
Homogenize, Limited Filtration
HMT
- Specialized Homogenize and Filtration Process
- Refrigerated Centrifuge Process
- Discard non-Bacteria Waste Material
- Extract Bacteria
FMT & HMT
Filling into container (bottle or tube)
Storage in -80C Freezer
Similar to FMTs, HMTs can be administered by clinicians in the form of Colonoscope, Endoscope, enema or capsule.
To learn more about how clinicians can sign-up to become a client, click here.
To learn more about how to become a donor, click here.
To learn more about how to receive HMT Treatment, click here.
Safety
Safety of fecal based bacteriotherapies are primarily based on the health of the stool donors. We employ vigorous donor screening metrics, adverse event tracking, and a 60-day quarantine period to ensure that all of our HMTs are as free of pathogenic organisms as possible.
Our donor screening criteria is based off of the excellent standards laid out by international stool banks in the US and Europe, with additional criteria added for pathogenic organisms, generalized inflammation due to unknown causes, and digestive health. First, a donor must pass a 100-point questionnaire. Next, a donor must pass a comprehensive health check-up, comprising of more than 50 items being checked for in the blood and stool samples of the potential donor. This donor screening process is the most rigorous of any stool bank globally.
Efficacy
Human Microbiota Therapy (HMT) has been used as a therapy for gastrointestinal diseases for decades, but only recently has become the object of focused study and application. Currently, fecal microbiota transplant or HMT is being used in dozens of countries around the world, including the US, UK, Australia and Israel, as a treatment for Clostridium Difficile infection (CDI). FMT is generally effective more than 90 percent of the time as a treatment for CDI. In the US, the FDA has allowed clinicians to provide FMT to recurrent C. difficile patients.
Currently, FMT is also being researched as a treatment for many gastrointestinal related diseases, including Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis), Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and other chronic digestive diseases. Medical clinics and FMT treatment centers in the UK and Australia have reported cases of successfully treating these diseases and conditions.
The leading US based stool bank has summarized some of the research done on FMT and published it on their website here.
If you are considering HMT therapy as a patient, please consult with your doctor to determine if this is the right treatment for you or contact us directly so that we may refer to you to a qualified medical professional for your consultation.
DISCLAIMER: There is a wealth of information available online about HMT, most often referred to as Fecal Microbiota Transfer. Not all of the information is accurate or safe, so please use caution in your reading. We do not endorse DIY therapy FMT.