The changing immune system in sepsis: is individualized immuno-modulatory therapy the answer?

ABSTRACT: Sepsis remains the leading cause of death in most intensive care units. Advances in understanding the immune response to sepsis provide the opportunity to develop more effective therapies. The immune response in sepsis can be characterized by a cytokine-mediated hyper-inflammatory phase, which most patients survive, and a subsequent immune-suppressive phase. Patients fail to eradicate invading pathogens and are susceptible to opportunistic organisms in the hypo-inflammatory phase. Many mechanisms are responsible for sepsis-induced immuno-suppression, including apoptotic depletion of immune cells, increased T regulatory and myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and cellular exhaustion. Currently in clinical trial for sepsis are granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor and interferon gam

SUBMITTER: Boomer JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3916383 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature