Potentially ‘life-saving’ treatment for deadly sepsis is in YOUR medicine cabinet
THE answer to treating sepsis could be hidden in your medicine cabinet, experts have revealed.
Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen and aspirin, help suppress enzymes that have been linked with aggressive immune responses like sepsis a US study has found.
Sepsis is more common that suffering a heart attack and kills more people than any cancer.
It is the primary causes of death from infection, across the world – claiming around 40,000 lives in the UK each year.
As the number of cases around the globe continues to rise, particularly in developing countries, pharmaceutical companies are yet to find a drug to combat the condition.
But new research from the University of Colorado could change that.
Hang Hubert Yin, a biochemistry professor at the university, said: "Non-steroidal anti-inflamatory drugs (NSAIDS) like ibuprofen and aspirin are among the most prevalent pharmaceuticals worldwide, with over 30 billion doses taken annually in the United States alone.
"But their precise mechanisms of action are not entirely understood.
"We provide the first evidence for a novel mechanism of action for NSAIDS, one we believe could have a direct impact on people's lives."
It has long been known that these drugs work in part by inhibiting a particular enzyme, called COX, involved in inflammation.
But Yin's research found that a subgroup of these drugs can also act strongly on a family on enzymes, called capases, that have recently been found to play a role in aggressive immune responses.
Yin said: "For instance, some chemicals derived from bacteria actually penetrate the cell and trigger the caspase response, prompting the cell to commit suicide.
"This also is known as apoptosis.
"Such activation, in turn, potentially causes inflammation."
Known by its colloquial name "blood poisoning", sepsis is also often referred to as a "flesh-eating disease".
WHAT IS SEPSIS?
Septicaemia, also known as sepsis, is a rare but serious complication of an infection that can quickly lead to multiple organ failure and death.
The blood poisoning occurs when large amounts of bacteria enter the bloodstream.
Bacterial meningitis can lead to septicaemia.
Sepsis can also be caused by viral or fungal infections, although bacterial infections are by far the most common cause.
Symptoms in children under 5
- your child may look mottled, bluish or pale
- is very lethargic and difficult to wake
- feels abnormally cold to touch
- is breathing very fast or having difficulty breathing
- has a rash that does not fade when you press on it
- is fitting or convulsing
- has a high temperature
- refusing to eat or drink
- has not had a wee for over 12 hours
Symptoms in older children and adults
- a high temperature
- chills and shivering
- fast heartbeat
- fast breathing
- feeling dizzy or faint
- confusion and disorientation
- diarrhoea
- nausea and vomiting
- slurred speech
- severe muscle pain
- breathlessness
- not urinating for a day
- cold, clammy and pale skin
- loss of consciousness
If any of these symptoms develop you should seek medical advice straight away.
It is always triggered by an infection such as pneumonia, urinary infections or skin infections.
To tackle the infection, the body's immune system increases the blood flow and allows infection fighting cells into the tissues where needed.
But when sepsis happens, this system goes into over drive and the body begins to attack itself.
It can lead to organ failure and septic shock, which can prove fatal.
Yin and his team began their research by scouring medically approved drugs for those that have the ability to stop the caspase response.
Out of 1,280 medically approved drugs screened, just 27 were found to have that ability - half of which were NSAIDs.
NSAIDs also made up eight of the top 10 most potent caspase inhibitors.
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They tested the drugs in the lab and also on round worm.
Yin cautioned that it is still too early to say if the NSAIDs could be used to treat sepsis as they are known to come wit other side effects - some NSAIDs have been removed from the market after they were linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
He said: "It remains questionable whether existing NSAIDs, perhaps in higher doses, could be used to treat sepsis. The risk of side effects may be too great.
"To think about the wide potential applications of these NSAID drugs is very exciting."
He thinks NSAIDs could potentially be used to treat other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and neuro-degenerative diseases in the future.
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