Would you fire a stranger’s snot up your nose to clear it?

SQUIRTING a healthy stranger’s nasal mucus up your nose could help relieve stuffiness. New research shows that just a few days of treatment with donated mucus can clear blocked nasal passages for up to three months. It is thought to improve the make- up of the nasal microbiome — the community of microbes, including bacteria, which live in the liquid that lines the nostrils and sinuses (air-filled cavities behind the nose, cheeks and eyes).

Previous studies have found that the greater the number and diversity of bugs in the nasal microbiome, the less likely it is someone will suffer with chronic congestion or hay fever.

Now scientists have found transplanting bug-rich mucus from healthy donors into the nostrils of those with permanent congestion clears the airways by reducing the inflammation that makes it difficult for them to breathe through the nose.

Chronic sinusitis, or a permanently blocked nose, develops when the nasal passages and the lining of the sinuses become inflamed and blocked, often as a result of a viral infection, such as a cold or flu.

This leads to difficulty breathing through the nose, and pain or tenderness around the eyes and nose.

Most cases clear after a couple of weeks but some people develop chronic sinusitis, lasting months, or even years.

Far from being a minor ailment, studies suggest the pain and discomfort can be as bad as conditions such as arthritis. The symptoms range from a constant runny nose or stuffiness, to a reduced sense of smell.

The inflammation can also lead to the formation of polyps — tiny growths in the sinuses that block air flow and can require surgery under a general anaesthetic to remove them. Ten thousand people a year in England alone undergo this surgery.

RECENT research has suggested that the type of bacteria in the nose could be a key factor in chronic sinusitis. Earlier studies found chronic sinusitis sufferers have fewer than 1,000 varieties of bacteria in their nasal cavities — compared with more than 1,200 in those without the condition.

The idea of using a stranger’s mucus to fix the problem borrows from the similarly unappealing sounding faecal transplants, which are currently used in the NHS to combat a gut infection called C. difficile, which kills thousands of people in the UK every year.

Patients either have a small sample of a healthy donor stool implanted into their intestine — by a doctor using a probe called a colonoscope — or they swallow a capsule containing freeze- dried fragments of faeces.

For the new approach, researchers at Lund University in Sweden recruited 22 adults with blocked noses. First, they put each volunteer on a two-week course of oral antibiotics to wipe out their existing ‘faulty’ nasal microbiome so that it could be ‘re-built’ using donated healthy mucus.

The donor mucus — taken mostly from partners or friends with no history of sinusitis — was then mixed with a few teaspoons of salt water and squirted up each nostril with a syringe.

The syringe was held in place for a few minutes to stop the solution leaking back out — enough time for some of the bacteria from the healthy donor to settle in the sinuses. This process was then repeated daily for five days.

Researchers analysed the volunteers’ responses using a symptom checklist called the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test ( or SNOT- 22), which measures everything from congestion and sneezing to runny nose, cough and facial pain.

Tests were also run to measure levels of inflammatory chemicals (called cytokines) in the volunteers’ nasal discharge.

The results, published in the International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, showed the severity of symptoms declined by almost 40 per cent over the following three months, and there was a significant increase in the number and variety of bacteria in nasal mucus.

Researchers now hope to confirm the findings in a larger study.

Adam Frosh, a consultant ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon at The Lister Hospital in Stevenage, said mucus transplants are a potential new therapy for millions of people who are affected by chronic sinusitis, but more research is needed.

‘The theory is really good — but this is a small study that doesn’t really prove anything,’ he said.

Simon Gane, consultant rhinologist and ENT surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London, added: ‘The nasal area definitely has its own microbiome and this is a very interesting area of research.

‘ I’d certainly prefer a snot transplant to a poo transplant.’