New drug to combat sepsis ‘could save millions of lives a year’

Scientists have developed a new drug which it is hoped could save the lives of millions of people a year.

Sepsis, which is also referred to as septicaemia or blood poisoning, has no direct cure and currently kills more people than prostate, bowel and breast cancer combined.

The condition affects over 19 million people internationally and can be triggered by any viral or bacterial infection, causing the immune system to go into overdrive. Each hour that it goes untreated increases the risk of death by 8%, and one in five patients who survive suffer from long term damage to organs, such as the liver, lungs and kidneys.

The drug, ABTAA, which was developed at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, attacks a protein (Ang2) which spreads through the bloodstream during a severe infection, weakening vessels and leading to severe organ damage and inflammation.

The drug also triggers another protein (Tie2), which stimulates the growth of healthy blood vessels.

The study has been published in the Science Translational Medicine journal.

Dr Seung Jun Lee, a member of the research team, said that the drug eradicates the root cause of sepsis, assisting the body to fight the infection.

He said “In the past treating sepsis meant fighting off the underlying infection but the immune system still attacked itself and people still died.”

Dr Lee went on to say that ABTAA strengthens the blood vessels “so the body has a stable environment to fight the infection which also prevents further damage.”

He added that the drug could become a routine treatment for sepsis, meaning that death or serious long term injury may no longer seem inevitable.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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