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martyb writes:

According to Wikipedia, Sepsis is: "a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs." and "Disease severity partly determines the outcome. The risk of death from sepsis is as high as 30%, from severe sepsis as high as 50%, and from septic shock as high as 80%."

So, if you have sepsis, it would be good to actually know it, so steps could be taken to treat it. Researchers have found some new clues to help with just such a diagnosis:

Researchers have found a clue in understanding how an infection can spiral into sepsis by blunting the body's immune response. This research may also help doctors identify the patients who may need immediate intensive treatment to save their lives.

[...] Sepsis can start with a simple infected cut. When the immune system fails to fight off the infection, sepsis occurs when inflammation spreads throughout the body, leaving patients vulnerable to organ damage, severe secondary infections, and death. While time is of the essence, doctors lack quick, efficient ways to diagnose this deadly condition.

[...] The immune system initially launches a vigorous attack against sepsis, but then the innate immune response shuts down. In a search to understand the underlying mechanism, Ghosh's team identified two microRNAs (miR-221 and miR-222) that are produced in immune cells during prolonged inflammation. These microRNAs silence inflammatory gene expression and in a mouse model of sepsis suppress the immune system at a time when the body desperately needs a full immune response.

Patients with suspected sepsis had a similar reaction. Among 30 hospitalized patients, those with evidence of organ failure exhibit higher levels of miR-221 and miR-222 in their blood samples. In septic patients, those with elevated miR-221 and miR-222 also exhibited evidence of immunosuppression.

[...] "When doctors face sepsis in the hospital, it is usually a mystery as to what is causing the infection, but they must act quickly. They can choose to use the broadest spectrum of antibiotics for an aggressive approach to cover every bacterial cause of infection, but this may later cause antibiotic resistance, a growing problem," says study co-author Daniel Freedberg, MD, assistant professor of medicine at CUIMC. "Any test that can identify the cause of sepsis to guide treatment options is invaluable."

Journal Reference:

John J. Seeley, Rebecca G. Baker, Ghait Mohamed, Tony Bruns, Matthew S. Hayden, Sachin D. Deshmukh, Daniel E. Freedberg, Sankar Ghosh. Induction of innate immune memory via microRNA targeting of chromatin remodelling factors. Nature, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0253-5

Definitions of sepsis can be found at Mayo Clinic and

Original Submission