Fecal microbiota transplantation in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus: What we learnt from the explorative clinical trial

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with the characterized presence of autoantibodies and resulting in multiple organ damage, which is incurable and can be lethal. The current treatments are limited and less progress has been made in drug discovery for the last few decades. Researches imply that gut dysbiosis exists in both patients and murine models with SLE, taking part in the pathogenesis of SLE through multiple mechanisms such as microbiota translocation and molecular mimicry. Intestinal interventions on the gut microbiome by fecal transplantations to reconstitute the gut-immunity homeostasis serve as a novel therapeutic option for SLE patients. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which is usually used in intestinal diseases, has been firstly demonstrated to be safe and efficient in recovering gut microbiota structure of SLE patients and reducing lupus activity in our recent clinical trial, which is the first trial testing FMT therapy in SLE treatment. In this paper, we reviewed the results of the single-arm clinical trial and made recommendations on FMT practice in SLE treatment including therapeutic indications, screening items and dosage regimen, trying to provide references for future study and clinical practice. We also came up with the unanswered questions that need to be solved by the ongoing randomized controlled trial as well as the future expectations for the intestinal intervention strategies of SLE patients.