Overview
- Peer‑reviewed findings in Nature Microbiology report that stool from affected patients produces far more ethanol in lab cultures than samples from household members and healthy controls.
- The largest study to date examined 22 patients, 21 household members, and 22 healthy participants to probe causes beyond diet or shared environment.
- Analyses implicate specific bacteria, notably Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which use ethanol‑producing metabolic pathways to ferment dietary carbohydrates.
- The team proposes stool‑based diagnostics and strategies that block bacterial ethanol pathways, noting that no standard therapy exists and cases are frequently missed or misattributed to alcohol misuse.
- One participant improved following two fecal microbiota transplants, and researchers are now evaluating stool transplants in eight patients.