Drugs to prevent organ failure deaths from blood poisoning on cards

A potential new treatment to prevent deaths from blood poisoning or septic shock may soon be coming.

Septic shock results from a serious inflammatory response to an infection resulting in total organ failure and death. Deaths from septic shocks are very high and about 50% of people with septic shock die.

Though there are some new treatment options available for septic shock, they are still inadequate.

Patients suffering from septic shock need to be admitted in hospitals to give intensive care to support their organs from failing.

Also, the treatment is often difficult as most people end up in hospital in very critical stage and there may not be an obvious source of infection.

Now researchers from Glasgow show that by blocking a molecule, which is found to be activated during septic shock, the risk of death can be minimized.

Animal studies conducted in mice showed that blocking the activity of an enzyme called SphK1 cut down death rates from organ failure in septic shock condition.

Researchers found abnormally high levels of the enzyme SphK1 in the immune cells from patients with severe sepsis.

SphK1 enzyme is activated during the inflammatory response that occurs in septic shock.

Blocking SphK1 enzyme reduced the inflammatory signals that lead to organ failure and subsequent deaths in mice with the condition.

The mice treated with certain drug candidates that could block the activity of SphK1 were  protected from multi-organ failure. The investigative a drug candidates also helped clearing the bacterial infection the leads to septic shock much better.

So, new drugs which can block SphK1 enzyme may become useful treatments for the deadly septic shock, according to Professor Alirio Melendez, from the University of Glasgow, who led the team.

“The incidence of sepsis is on the increase and clinical treatments are still inadequate so a medical breakthrough of this kind is timely and will hopefully lead to a way to treat this killer condition,” he stated.

John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said the results were very interesting but one of the key factors in improving survival in people with sepsis was getting an early diagnosis.

The new research findings published in Science , could lead to a wider range of drugs for septic shock which is estimated to affect 20 million people worldwide every year.

However, it is important to identify sepsis early and treat it aggressively, experts said.

What is septic shock?

Septic shock is a possible consequence of bacteremia, or bacteria in the bloodstream. Bacterial toxins, and the immune system response to them, cause a dramatic drop in blood pressure, preventing the delivery of blood to the organs.

Septic shock can lead to multiple organ failure including respiratory failure, and may cause rapid death. Toxic shock syndrome is one type of septic shock.

During an infection, certain types of bacteria can produce and release endotoxins, that may provoke a dramatic response by the body’s immune system. Released in the bloodstream, endotoxins are particularly dangerous, because they become widely dispersed and affect the blood vessels themselves.

Arteries and the smaller arterioles open wider, increasing the total volume of the circulatory system. At the same time, the walls of the blood vessels become leaky, allowing fluid to seep out into the tissues, lowering the amount of fluid left in circulation.

Septic shock is seen most often in patients with suppressed immune systems.