Analysing Sepsis Management Part II: Treatments

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by overactivation of host immune system upon infections which may lead to organ failure and potentially death. World Health Organization designates sepsis as a global public health priority. Several studies conducted to understand the molecular basis of sepsis, septic shock, and organ failure. Despite extensive preclinical and clinical studies conducted over the past few decades, no significant improvement has observed in sepsis management. Lack of effective therapeutics raises the question about our understanding of sepsis pathophysiology. Another challenge comes with the heterogeneous nature of sepsis which depends on several factors, such as the pathogen causing infection and age, genetic make-up, existing medical condition, and lifestyle of the person. A further challenge comes with a measurement of the success of novel therapeutics.

This research study begins with highlighting the current status of sepsis treatment, such as antibiotics used with different kinds of pathogens along with antifungal and antiviral drugs used to treat infections; and also talks about the importance of fluid resuscitation and oxygen therapy in severe sepsis. A brief introduction to the course of sepsis development, the most important pathogen involved in sepsis and commonly affected body sites and associated mortality rates have discussed.

This study highlights some of the most important aspects considered to improve the current understanding and underlying mechanisms of sepsis, importance of preclinical and clinical studies, integration of sepsis specific biomarker in therapeutics, detecting biological signals and gene expression levels and designing novel interventions such as immunomodulatory and personalized approaches. Moreover, this study covers new sepsis treatment approaches such as phage therapy, cellular immunotherapy, antibody therapeutics, recombinant protein therapeutics, peptide therapeutics, microbial therapeutics, and vaccines as well as newly designed receptor blocker, receptor inhibitors, agonist, and alkaloids. A short introduction to clinical updates and patent landscape for sepsis therapeutics has provided. The study concludes with an emphasis on adopting new technologies to develop our understanding of sepsis that will help design breakthrough therapeutics.