Washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) in children with ASD: efficacy and donor-recipient microbial characteristics
WMT produced statistically significant improvement in core symptoms, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal symptoms in 38 ASD children, with efficacy correlated to donor-recipient microbial similarity.
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What the study showed
The study found significant changes in clinical rating scales for core ASD symptoms, sleep, and gastrointestinal complaints at 4 weeks post-WMT. Efficacy was associated with pre-transplant gut microbiota characteristics of both donor and recipient. In Bacteroides-dominant donor-recipient pairs, greater microbial similarity correlated with better outcomes.
How it was done
Clinical study of 38 ASD patients receiving a full WMT course from a single donor (2019–2024); clinical scales and stool samples collected before and 4 weeks after WMT, with 16S rRNA sequencing and enterotype stratification (Bacteroides or Prevotella).
Risk of bias
Small sample (n=38), no placebo control, single donor, 4-week follow-up only, and no causal inference possible. Only the abstract is available; effect sizes, full statistics, and confounder adjustments cannot be verified.
What this study does NOT prove
The study does not prove that WMT treats ASD or that donor-recipient microbial similarity causally drives clinical improvement.
In clinical practice
Findings are preliminary and do not support changes to clinical practice. Without a placebo arm, distinguishing true treatment effect from regression to the mean or attention bias is not possible.
Limitations
Small sample (n=38), no placebo control, single donor, 4-week follow-up only, and no causal inference possible. Only the abstract is available; effect sizes, full statistics, and confounder adjustments cannot be verified.
Technical appendix
Version history
- 1.0 · 2026-07-21 — Auto-generated under Evidence Standard v1.0
Paid access: structured summary from public metadata; consult the original study at the source.