A live bacterial therapy designed to restore the gut microbiome showed early promise in helping prevent dangerous bloodstream infections in people receiving donor stem-cell transplants for blood cancers.
The treatment, called SER-155, was evaluated in a multicenter phase 1 clinical trial involving researchers at City of Hope, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Seres Therapeutics. The study, published in Nature Medicine, found the therapy was well tolerated and reported no treatment-related side effects.
Protecting highly vulnerable patients
Patients receiving donor stem-cell transplants are especially vulnerable to infection. Their treatment can disrupt the normal microbial communities that live in and on the body, while also leaving immune defenses severely compromised. Bloodstream infections are among the serious complications that can follow.
SER-155 is a live biotherapeutic: a medicine made from beneficial bacteria. It contains 16 selected bacterial strains intended to rebuild a healthier microbiome and suppress harmful pathogens.
In the early trial, patients who received SER-155 had fewer bloodstream infections and lower levels of harmful bacteria associated with infection, according to the researchers. Those results are encouraging, but the phase 1 design means the therapy remains an early clinical finding rather than an established standard of care.
From broad microbiome ideas to a defined treatment
The microbiome has become an important area of cancer-care research because it may affect treatment response, recovery and side effects. Yet turning that insight into a consistently manufactured, clinically targeted medicine is a separate challenge.
The SER-155 study is notable because it tested a defined collection of beneficial bacteria with a specific preventive purpose in a particularly high-risk group. Rather than relying on an undefined microbial mixture, the therapy uses a selected consortium intended to restore functions lost during intensive cancer treatment.
What the trial suggests
The research offers preliminary evidence that a designed bacterial consortium can be delivered safely to highly vulnerable patients and may reduce an important source of complications. It also supports the broader possibility that live biotherapeutics could become a distinct class of medicines for infection prevention.
Further studies will be needed to confirm the effect, assess the treatment in larger groups and establish how it compares with existing infection-prevention approaches. For now, the trial provides an early signal that microbiome-directed therapies could eventually complement conventional care for transplant patients.
This article is based on reporting by Medical Xpress. Read the original article.
Originally published on medicalxpress.com
