Posted on 01/12/2023 5:28:52 PM PST by ConservativeMind
The body's extreme response to infection, a condition called sepsis, kills 11 million people every year. This is because to survive a serious infection it is not enough to get rid of the infectious agent, which is currently done with relative effectiveness; it is also necessary to limit the damage these and the immune response cause to the organs.
The solution could be a class of drugs commonly used to treat cancer: anthracyclines. In the past, the team demonstrated that these drugs prevent organ failure in mice with sepsis without affecting the infectious agent's burden. This discovery inspired a clinical trial in Germany that is evaluating if the use of anthracyclines improves the course of sepsis and reduces the patients' risk of death. But to take full advantage of these drugs, we need to understand how they confer tolerance to infection.
To explore this, researchers tested different anthracyclines in immune system cells of mice. The results were surprising: these anticancer drugs limited the levels of pro-inflammatory mediators produced by the cells when administered in low doses. This effect was maintained when researchers treated mice with sepsis with these drugs.
The next challenge was to understand how these drugs control inflammation. "We discovered that anthracyclines control relevant inflammatory genes in the immune system cells," explains Ana Neves-Costa. By forming a complex with the cell's DNA, these drugs avoid the binding of factors that drive the expression of these genes. In result, cells produce less inflammatory molecules.
"This new mechanism is particularly important because it lacks the side effects caused by administering high doses of these compounds in chemotherapy," the researcher adds.
"With this work we found a possible new solution to treat diseases caused by exaggerated inflammation, such as sepsis and rheumatoid arthritis, more effectively," explains Luís Moita.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
PING healthcare
I feel blessed to have survived Sepsis almost 3 years ago but I soon developed out of control inflammation and then both osteoarthritis and psoriatic arthritis. I’m not sure of every drug they used but they basically told me they used every antibiotic they had. I lost 30 lbs in ten days.
Sepsis destroyed the brain of my nephew’s wife in 24 hours but did not kill her. A greater cruelty is hard to imagine.
I am saddened to hear that, sir.
I am so glad he is there for her, but what an unfortunate thing for her to have happen.
My friend since high school died of sepsis last year after a hip replacement surgery. Took 8 days to kill him.
L
Oh my gosh. That’s so sad.
“sepsis, kills 11 million people every year”
There some evil people that have no issue with this. I believe they are in Davos right now.
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