SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Each year, at least 1.7 million Americans develop sepsis. According to the CDC, 270,000 will die as a result. Sepsis is caused by bacterial infections but, it can also be caused by viral infections like COVID-19. Now, there’s new hope that two already approved drugs can help save lives.
Fever, chills, rapid breathing, increased heart rate, and confusion are all symptoms of sepsis.
“Sepsis is one of the most dangerous syndromes known in medicine,” UC San Diego School of Medicine professor, Dr. Victor Nizet, mentioned.
In fact, one in three patients who die in a hospital also have sepsis.
“It is an uncontrolled inflammatory response to a severe bacterial infection that is spreading through your body,” Dr. Nizet further explained.
Usually treated with antibiotics, there’s no single approved drug specifically targeting sepsis but, researchers at UC San Diego have found two different drugs, already FDA approved, that may help the patient’s own body fight staph sepsis—not by using antibiotics, but by maintaining a patient’s platelet count.
Dr. Nizet said, “Platelets in the blood were able to kill staph better than the white blood cells.”
The two repurposed drugs used to maintain platelets are Brilinta, a blood thinner commonly prescribed to prevent heart attack recurrence, and Tamiflu, used to treat the flu.
Sixty percent of mice treated with both drugs survived 10 days following infection, compared to 20 percent of untreated mice. Now, researchers hope these same results will transfer to people.
“We are looking for new ideas in which we try to assist in the clearance of infection by boosting the immune system,” Dr. Nizet added.
Sepsis is one of the costliest of all diseases, recently totaling more than $24 billion in hospital expenses, or 13 percent of total U.S. hospital costs.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer
To receive a free weekly e-mail on medical breakthroughs from Ivanhoe, sign up at: http://www.ivanhoe.com/ftk
Source:
https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/sepsis.aspx
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: FIGHTING SEPSIS: USING OLD DRUGS NEW WAYS
REPORT: MB #5031
BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a condition characterized by the body’s inflammatory response to an infection. Sepsis is diagnosed where there is evidence of systemic inflammation, in addition to a documented or presumed bloodstream infection. Systemic illness often occurs when bacteria or fungi invade normally sterile parts of the body. One example of this is the invasion of bacteria or fungi into the bloodstream, a process that often causes an inflammatory immune response. If sepsis is not treated with antibiotics it can progress to severe sepsis or septic shock and can lead to multiple organ failure and death. Severe sepsis occurs when the body’s response to infection interferes with the functioning of vital organs, such as the heart, kidneys, lungs or liver.
(Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK368614/)
DIAGNOSING: Every year more than one million Americans develop sepsis. Sepsis is a life-threatening medical condition that arises when the body initiates a powerful immune response against an infection. Anyone can get sepsis, but two-thirds of all cases occur in people over the age of 65. Around 40 percent of patients who get sepsis don’t survive, making it the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. The key to fighting this dangerous condition is recognizing it early and treating it quickly. Common symptoms include fever, rapid heart rate, and rapid breathing.
(Source: https://www.agingresearch.org/video/video-sepsis-in-older-americans/)
NEW USE FOR MEDICINE: Victor Nizet, MD says his research provides evidence to show that looking for new ideas in which we try to assist in the clearance of infection by boosting the immune system is very important future idea for medicine. There are currently a lot of drugs that act to reduce the activity of the immune system, anti-inflammatory medicines. You might take them for asthma or arthritis or multiple sclerosis, but it’s important to remember that the immune system works much like brakes and accelerators that control immune system activity, and if those very same pathways could be pushed in the other way to increase immune cell activity for even for a very short period of time when a patient is at the most critical stage of the infection, Dr. Nizet says that could help them support immunity.
(Source: Victor Nizet, University of California San Diego)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Michelle Brubaker
(858) 249-0416
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
