title: Adventure of recombinant human activated protein C in sepsis and new treatment hopes on the horizon.
abstract: Sepsis continues to be a very important cause of morbidity and mortality despite advances in modern medicine. It is the cause of mortality in approximately 28-50% of the patients, with the risk increasing particularly in patients with multiple organ dysfunctions. Although anti-infective treatment and securing hemostasis form the cornerstone in the management of this condition, studies to develop new drugs are expected to reduce mortality in severely septic patients. Recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) was known as an anti-inflammatory agent with proven efficacy in severe sepsis patients and had a critical effect in the reduction of mortality when administered in the right dose and duration so far, but unfortunately current studies indicate that it was unable to show favorable effects of rhAPC on patients with severe sepsis. For this reason, interests are becoming focused on some other new approaches such as antioxidant treatments, stem cells, computer-implemented sepsis alerting systems, endotoxin removal devices. These attempts may reduce the incidence of mortality due to sepsis in the near future. Some patents on sepsis have also been reviewed in this article.
authors.affiliation: Karadeniz Technical University, School of Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey. eselkaya@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Selcuk
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaya
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D009102:Multiple Organ Failure / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D010330:Patents as Topic; D011486:Protein C / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018805:Sepsis / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D011486:Protein C; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C421124:drotrecogin alfa activated