ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT06827977Updated Jul 8, 2026

A Study of Microbiome Transplantation for the Treatment of Constipation and/or Significant Bloating in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis

A Phase 2 interventional study of PRIM-DJ2727 and Placebo in Constipation and Bloating, sponsored by The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-08.

Sponsored by The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Mar 2025; still recruiting 1 year 8 months later.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
21
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to characterize the intestinal flora in subjects with systemic sclerosis-related constipation and/or significant bloating and to determine safety and trends in improvements in the diversity of colonic microbiome and patient symptoms following the administration of either frozen or lyophilized PRIM-DJ2727 microbiota.

Read the detailed description

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tolerability and safety of frozen and lyophilized microbiome transplant product (PRIM- DJ2727), to characterize the microbiome (α-diversity and β-diversity) and metabolome in patients with Systemic Sclerosis (SSc)-related constipation and/or significant bloating, to examine improvement in constipation and/or significant bloating after microbiome transplant, to examine improved colonic transit after microbiome transplant, to examine subjective global improvement and improvement in SSc disease characteristics, to monitor change in concentration of systemic and fecal inflammatory markers, and to monitor for change in fecal short-chain fatty acids and metabolome.

02

Conditions studied

  • Constipation
  • Bloating

Keywords

  • Systemic Sclerosis
03

In context

Constipation

1,046 studies on the registry are indexed under Constipation; 161 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 21 is below the median of 75 across 884 interventional studies indexed under Constipation.

Browse Constipation studies →

Lead sponsor

The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston is the lead sponsor of 897 studies on the registry; 214 are open to participants now.

Of its 173 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 142 (82%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Are seen in the UT Houston Scleroderma Center (UTHSC)
  • Meet 2013 American college of rheumatology (ACR)/European league against rheumatism (EULAR) criteria or CREST criteria for SSc
  • Meet Rome IV criteria for constipation and/or significant bloating
  • Subject willing to sign an form
  • Subject deemed likely to survive for ≥ 1 year after enrollment
  • Able to follow study procedure and follow-up
  • Sexually active male and female subjects of must agree to use an effective method of during the treatment and follow-up period
  • Female subjects of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test in the 72 hours before the procedure
  • Subjects who agree to adhere to a stable diet for at least 4 weeks before joining the study and throughout the study
  • Subjects must have an attending physician who will provide non-transplant care for the subject

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subjects with constipation and/or significant bloating from causes not attributed to SSc as determined by the treating physician (e.g., inflammatory bowel disease, medication, significant diabetes, or hypothyroidism, etc.)
  • Subjects unwilling to stop taking probiotic supplements during the duration of the study
  • Subjects that have post-total or hemicolectomy or the presence of a colostomy
  • Subjects unable to tolerate microbiome transplant via enema for any reason or swallow capsules
  • Subjects requiring systemic antibiotic therapy 4 weeks before the study
  • If subjects are on , the immunosuppression dose should be stable for at least 4 weeks before study enrollment
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
21 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    PRIM-DJ2727

    Drug: PRIM-DJ2727

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo

    Drug: Placebo

Interventions

  • For oral administration, each dose will contain the number of capsules needed to deliver the lyophilized intestinal bacteria powder derived after lyophilization of 60 g of filtered stool in 300 mL 0.85% NaCl and 2% mannitol. Participants will take the capsules (5-6 capsules twice weekly) from week 2 through week 10. Capsules will be taken over a period of up to one hour to maximize tolerance and ensure the capsules are not expelled by vomiting. For administration via retention enema, which will be done at baseline and week 11, 50 g of filtered, frozen stool in 250 mL of 0.85% sodium chloride (NaCl) will be used.

  • DrugPlacebo

    Placebo will be administered as capsules from week 2-10 and as enema at baseline and week 11.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in symptoms and signs of constipation and/or significant bloating as assessed by total score on the University of California, Los Angeles Gastrointestinal Tract Questionnaire, version 2.0 (UCLA GIT 2.0)

    This consists of 34 questions covering domains such as diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, nausea, bloating, gastroesophageal reflux, fecal incontinence, and emotional well-being related to GI symptoms. Each item is scored on a Likert scale ranging from 0 to 3 (0 = none, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe), with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity. Domain scores are calculated as the sum of responses to items within the domain, and a total score is calculated by summing all domain scores, representing the overall GI symptom burden. Total score will be reported, and the total score ranges from 0-102.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  2. Change in Pelvic Floor Distress as Assessed by the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (PFDI-20 summary score)

    The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (PFDI-20) is composed of 3 subscales: the Urinary Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6), the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 (POPDI-6), and the Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory-8 (CRADI-8). For each question, the participant must indicate how much bowl, bladder, or pelvic symptoms have been bothering them in the past 3 months on a 4-point scale that ranges from "not at all" (0) to "quite a bit" (4). Total score for each subscale ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating worse distress. The sum of the 3 subscales are added together to get the PFDI-20 summary score, which ranges from 0 to 300, with a higher score indicating worse distress.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  3. Change in Pelvic Floor Distress as Assessed by the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (UDI-6 subscale score)

    The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (PFDI-20) is composed of 3 subscales: the Urinary Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6), the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 (POPDI-6), and the Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory-8 (CRADI-8). For each question, the participant must indicate how much bowl, bladder, or pelvic symptoms have been bothering them in the past 3 months on a 4-point scale that ranges from "not at all" (0) to "quite a bit" (4). Total score for each subscale ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating worse distress. The sum of the 3 subscales are added together to get the PFDI-20 summary score, which ranges from 0 to 300, with a higher score indicating worse distress.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  4. Change in Pelvic Floor Distress as Assessed by the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (POPDI-6 subscale score)

    The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (PFDI-20) is composed of 3 subscales: the Urinary Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6), the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 (POPDI-6), and the Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory-8 (CRADI-8). For each question, the participant must indicate how much bowl, bladder, or pelvic symptoms have been bothering them in the past 3 months on a 4-point scale that ranges from "not at all" (0) to "quite a bit" (4). Total score for each subscale ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating worse distress. The sum of the 3 subscales are added together to get the PFDI-20 summary score, which ranges from 0 to 300, with a higher score indicating worse distress.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  5. Change in Pelvic Floor Distress as Assessed by the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (CRADI-8 subscale score)

    The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory Questionnaire-20 (PFDI-20) is composed of 3 subscales: the Urinary Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6), the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 (POPDI-6), and the Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory-8 (CRADI-8). For each question, the participant must indicate how much bowl, bladder, or pelvic symptoms have been bothering them in the past 3 months on a 4-point scale that ranges from "not at all" (0) to "quite a bit" (4). Total score for each subscale ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating worse distress. The sum of the 3 subscales are added together to get the PFDI-20 summary score, which ranges from 0 to 300, with a higher score indicating worse distress.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  6. Change in symptoms and signs of constipation as assessed by score on the Patient Assessment of Constipation Symptoms (PAC-SYM) scale

    The PAC-SYM is a 12-item questionnaire that assesses abdominal, rectal, and stool symptoms, with each item scored from 0 (No symptoms) to 4 (Very severe symptoms), for a total score range of 0-48, with a higher score indicating worse constipation severity.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  7. Change in Gastrointestinal Symptom Severity as Assessed by the Patient Assessment of Gastrointestinal Disorders-Symptom Severity Index (PAGI-SYM)

    Total score ranges from 0 (none or absent) to 5 (very severe), with a higher score indicating a worse outcome.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  8. Number of participants who show an improvement in constipation and/or significant bloating symptoms as indicated by the stool diary

    Time frame: from baseline to end of study (week 12)

  9. Change in gut transit times (assessed by Sitz markers and X-ray)

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in alpha diversity of the microbiome

    Species richness and evenness within a single sample will be measured.

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

  2. Change in beta diversity of the microbiome

    Time frame: pre-transplant, post-treatment within weeks 11 to 12

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Mar 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jun 2027, 27 months after the start.

Of 41 phase 2 interventional studies under Constipation, half reached primary completion within 20 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 42. This study's planned 27 months is above that.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 9, 2025
First posted
Feb 14, 2025
StartActual
Mar 3, 2025
Primary completionEst.
Jun 30, 2027
CompletionEst.
Jun 30, 2028
Last update
Jul 8, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 8, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06827977
Responsible party
Zsuzsanna Hortobagyi Mcmahan (Associate Professor of Medicine, Co-Director of the UTHealth Scleroderma Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 14, 2025
Start date
Mar 3, 2025
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 30, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 8, 2026

Study contacts

Zsuzsanna McMahan, MD, MHS
Contact
Zsuzsanna.H.McMahan@uth.tmc.edu
713-500-7531
Ashish P Balar, MBBS, MPH
Contact
Ashish.P.Balar@uth.tmc.edu
713-500-4409
Zsuzsanna McMahan, MD, MHS
principal investigator · The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Studies of the drug tested here: Fecal microbiota

Start the discussion