A new drug designed to improve the creation and survival of two types of immune cells was associated with a stronger immune system response to sepsis, according to a study published in JCI Insight.
To assess the drug's possible efficacy against sepsis, researchers enrolled 27 sepsis patients ages 33 to 82 years in a clinical trial. Patients were enrolled at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and two medical centers in France. Researchers assigned patients to either receive a placebo or the new drug for four weeks.
While the study was too small to produce statistically significant results regarding reduced mortality, researchers found the immune response in individuals administered the new drug to be more robust than patients taking the placebo. The drug is specifically designed to boost production of CD4 and CD8 immune cells, which recruit other immune cells to fend off severe infections. Patients given the new drug displayed CD4 and CD8 counts up to four times higher than the placebo group.
"Patients who develop the most serious form of sepsis, called septic shock, often have very low counts of these key immune cells," said Edward Sherwood, MD, PhD, a professor of anesthesiology at Vanderbilt and one of the study's investigators. "We believe that could play a role in the development and course of sepsis because without those cells, patients aren't able to clear as much harmful bacteria."
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