Landmark 139 · Trial in people
GUT-PARFECT faecal transplant
In 46 people, movement scores improved more with donor stool at 12 months. It is small, and later trials did not repeat it.
In short
A 46-person Belgian trial of donor gut bacteria showed a motor gain at 12 months in 2024, the only faecal transplant trial in this record with a positive primary result, though a Finnish trial of the same year (landmark 349) did not confirm it.
- What it is
- Trial in people
- Outcome
- Mixed or early results
- When
- 2024
- Size
- 46 people · Phase 2
- Approach
- Look beyond the brain
- Research lane
- Gut–brain origin
- Trial registry
- NCT03808389
- Last checked
- 19 Oct 2026
The research record
This is the project's file for this landmark, as written and checked. Sources are listed at the end; anything not yet confirmed is marked "Not yet verified".
Who
Annelies Bruggeman, Patrick Santens (corresponding author) and colleagues, Ghent University and University Hospital, Belgium (GUT-PARFECT). Funded by Flemish Parkinson's patient organisations (VPL, Parkili), Research Foundation Flanders and the Biocodex Microbiota Foundation.
What happened
- GUT-PARFECT (eClinicalMedicine 71:102563, 27 March 2024; NCT03808389). Phase 2, single-centre, double-blind, run December 2020 to December 2022. 46 people with Parkinson's aged 50–65 (motor onset after 50) were randomised 1:1 to one nasojejunal transplant (200 ml) of donor stool (22) or their own stool as placebo (24); 43 had full data (21 and 22). Donor stool came from 17 healthy donors. The primary measure, off-medication MDS-UPDRS part III (motor), changed by −5.8 points (95% CI −11.4 to −0.2) with donor stool and −2.7 (−8.3 to 2.9) with placebo at 12 months (between-group p = 0.0235). Colon transit improved more with donor stool (p = 0.0252); fatigue scored worse (p = 0.0418); other measures did not differ. Mild, short-lived stomach symptoms in the first week occurred in 13 of 22 (59%) versus 6 of 24 (25%); there were no severe treatment-related events. The registry lists the study as completed, with no posted results.
- Finnish trial. The same year's colonoscopic transplant trial found no benefit; see landmark 349.
- Other trials. Two further faecal transplant trials have their own files: landmark 262 (EFFACE-PD, negative) and landmark 263 (Soroka pilot, no results).
Why it moved us toward a cure
Mice in landmark 56 suggested gut bacteria affect synuclein disease. GUT-PARFECT is the first randomised human test with a positive motor result. It is small and does not show disease slowing.
Outcome
Open and mixed. The result needs confirmation; the primary result sits at the edge of significance in a small trial, and the Warsaw trial (landmark 262) did not reproduce it. Neither tested whether decline was slowed.
Sources
- Bruggeman et al., eClinicalMedicine 2024, DOI 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102563, PMC11056595, PMID 38686220 · NCT03808389
- Not yet verified: the Finnish and Warsaw comparisons rest on their own files, not rechecked here; whether the benefit lasts beyond 12 months.
How it connects
Built on
- tests Gut microbes and synuclein mice · 2016
Led to
None recorded.