If you’ve ever been in a hospital or doctor’s office (props to you if you can’t relate), you may have noticed posters of sepsis awareness including signs, symptoms, and ways you can help prevent shock. Sepsis has been an increasing concern in the healthcare community and here’s why. According to a recently reviewed page on Medicinenet‘s website, sepsis is deadly blood poisoning typically caused by health-care related bacterial infections. To put it simply, any localized bacterial infection that spreads to the bloodstream is sepsis. The treatment of sepsis is a long and tiresome one typically requiring a few weeks of hospitalization (depending on the severity of the case) and intense antibiotic treatments. Most cases, unfortunately, lead to death due to organ failure and septic shock, or super duper high blood pressure.
As I discussed in my previous post, new research and studies frequently conducted in the healthcare field are helping us win our fight against the microscopic world of pathogens! Luckily, many studies are being conducted on sepsis and ways to better treat the condition to help save lives. According to a recent MedicalNewsToday post, a new drug compound of cilengitide- generically called InnovoSep- has been researched and shown evidence of inhibiting the progression of organ failure in septic patients. According to the article, InnovoSep was successfully used by researches at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and showed to prevent S. aureus and E. coli from binding to Endothelial cell barriers; by preventing damage to endothelial cells, sepsis can ultimately be controlled, and that is exactly what this research of InnovoSep aimed to justify. The article mentions that the drug appeared to prevent bacteria going into the bloodstream by “stabilizing the blood vessels so that they cannot leak bacteria and infect the major organs”. The thing that gets me most excited about this drug is the fact that its not an antibiotic! I’ve discussed the severity of antibiotic resistance in past blog posts and obviously, antibiotic resistance is a concern with sepsis treatment. The article mentions this benefit of the drug as being very promising.
Of course, as with any new study, many more clinical trails and approvals must be met before the whole world can accept the new idea. Considering the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is the only institution I could find that thoroughly studied this drug, I personally need a little more to fully be convinced that InnovoSep is the answer. The fact that this is not non-antibiotic treatment for sepsis is highly innovate and highly amazing, but makes me wonder how effective it can really be on any given patient. Nevertheless, this research is great step forward for us.
Microbiology for Smarties 