Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Extract – body fluid – or cellular material of undetermined... – Waste or feces
Reexamination Certificate
1995-06-07
2003-11-11
Witz, Jean C. (Department: 1651)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Extract, body fluid, or cellular material of undetermined...
Waste or feces
C424S093300, C424S093480, C426S061000, C426S071000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06645530
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to methods of treating diseases in mammals, in particular to the treatment of chronic disorders associated with the presence of abnormal or an abnormal distribution of microflora in the gastrointestinal tract. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions suitable for the treatment of such disorders.
BACKGROUND ART
There are large numbers of patients suffering from gastro-intestinal symptoms referrable to the lower small bowel and large bowel which to date have eluded explanation. These disorders include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or spastic colon, idiopathic ulcerative colitis, mucous colitis, collagenous colitis, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease in general, microscopic colitis, antibiotic-associated colitis, idiopathic or simple constipation, diverticular disease, and AIDS enteropathy. Pathophysiology of these disorders eludes logical explanation in spite of decades of research and millions of dollars of research funds. A common underlying factor shared by all these disorders observed by the present inventor is their onset following some extraneous invading infection. In all the disorders, the infection cannot be demonstrated due to our inability to detect infecting agents whose cultural characteristics are unknown to medical science.
Circumstantial evidence which suggests that these disorders are “infection-related” includes:
(a) onset following a gastro-intestinal infection which failed to completely resolve;
(b) transient improvement with use of certain antibiotics, but recurrence upon cessation of antibiotics;
(c) transient improvement following orthostatic lavage prior to colonoscopy and;
(d) transient symptom improvement with use of “colonic” irrigation
It is impractical to use long-term antibiotic therapy (with its associated complications) in such patients since cure is not obtained with its use. Furthermore, chronic gut infections with recognised, specific pathogens such as
Clostridium difficile, Yersinia enterocolitica
or
Campylobacter jejuni/coli
are not eradicated with antibiotics. Some previous attempts have been made to alter the enteric microflora in order to eradicate such chronic infections. These measures nevertheless indicate that alteration of bacterial flora may effect dramatic clinical improvement in conditions characterized by chronic, resistant enterocolitic infection. However there remain many chronic disorders of uncertain aetiology or causation, which are resistant to cure by current therapeutic techniques.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide novel methods of treating various disease states related to the presence of “abnormal” microflora in the gastrointestinal tract.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention recognises chronic infection/infestation as the underlying pathological process in a wide range of chronic disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, particularly when characterised by chronic abdominal pain, bloating, or excessive flatulence, together with chronic diarrhoea or alternating constipation/diarrhoea, and also in spastic colon, mucous colitis, collagenous colitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's colitis, microscopic colitis, idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease, antibiotic-associated colitis, idiopathic or simple constipation, diverticular disease and AIDS enteropathy.
The invention has also been found to relate to other gastrointestinal disorders of unexplained aetiology such as polyposis coli and colonic polyps, which may well be influenced by the local bowel microflora.
In addition the present invention also provides a method of treatment of chronic gastrointestinal infections with specific microorganisms such as
Clostridium difficile
, Yersinia spp, Campylobacter spp, Aeromonas spp,
E. coli
, Cryptosporidium spp, Amoebae, Giardia and even chronic viral infections, and of small bowel bacterial overgrowth.
The present invention furthermore, recognises the close association between the intestine and liver disease, and the intestine and migraines and chronic fatigue syndrome, and possibly other neurological syndromes such as, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimers disease and other degenerative disorders. Hence, it is proposed that a considerable proportion of currently unexplained diseases of the liver and nervous system of unknown aetiology may be explicable by the chronic storage of pathogens within the small/large intestine and the subsequent passage of antigenic material and pathogenic TOXINS into the portal system (liver damage) or systemic circulation (neurological conditions). Specifically, such hepato/biliary system disorders as primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, fatty liver of unknown aetiology, or cryptogenic cirrhosis, may be secondary to chronic pathogen carrier state in the intestine.
The links between the intestine and joint disease are also recognised. Joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, the non-rheumatoid arthritidies including, ankylosing spondylitis, and Reiter's syndrome, may also be causally related to a chronic intestinal carrier state, as may other syndromes with an immune mediated component such as glomerulonephritis, haemolytic uraemic syndrome, juvenile diabetes mellitus, Behcet's syndrome, coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis. Similarly, syndromes with an immune complex mediated component, such as scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed cryoglobulinaemia, polyarteritis, familial Mediterranean fever, amyloidosis, and the various presentations of such syndromes, together with such “idiopathic” states as chronic urticaria, may be manifestations of variations of immune regulated responses to related bowel-origin pathogens chronically shedding their antigen(s) into the circulation. Other chronic conditions such as acne, and chronic idiopathic pseudo-obstructive syndrome, may well be influenced by similar mechanisms.
For many of these syndromes present therapy offers only palliation of symptoms and/or the induction of remission of the disease process but not cure. The present inventor therefore recognised the need to find a curative therapy for these wide ranging disease processes associated with considerable morbidity.
Thus according to a first embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of treatment or prophylaxis of a chronic disorder associated with the presence in the gastrointestinal tract of a host of abnormal or an abnormal distribution of microflora for said host, which method comprises the removal of at least a portion of the host's existing enteric microflora and the substitution of an effective amount of predetermined microflora.
In its preferred form the treatment should effect a cure of the symptoms of such disorders. The change of flora is preferably as “near-complete” as possible and the flora is replaced by viable organisms which will crowd out any remaining, original flora.
The method of the present invention is applicable to animals in general in particular humans and economically significant domestic animals.
In the case of humans, the present invention encompasses methods of treatment of chronic disorders associated with the presence of abnormal enteric microflora. Such disorders include but are not limited to those conditions in the following categories:
i) gastro-intestinal disorders including irritable bowel syndrome or spastic colon, ulcerative colitis, mucous colitis, collagenous colitis, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, microscopic colitis, antibiotic associated colitis, idiopathic or simple constipation, diverticular disease, AIDS enteropathy, small bowel bacterial overgrowth, coeliac disease, polyposis coli, colonic polyps, chronic idiopathic pseudo obstructive syndrome;
ii) chronic gut infections with specific pathogens including bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa;
iii) liver disorders such as primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, fatty liver or cryptogenic ci
Gastro Services Pty Limited
Witz Jean C.
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