Teabag fights deadly blood poisoning

New sepsis therapy: healthy immune cells fight blood poisoning in the „Teabag“

06/12/2013

Blood poisoning due to pneumonia, surgery or an accident is part of everyday life in the intensive care unit. Every year more than 200,000 patients in Germany suffer from the inflammatory reaction, which ends fatally for about 60,000 people affected. Doctors often face powerlessness (sepsis) when antibiotics are no longer effective. Then the patient's immune system is more or less on its own. As a result, organ failure and circulatory collapse may occur. Rostock researchers have now succeeded in the development of an immune support system that works like a similar „Teabag“.

Donor cells act in the „Teabag“ outside the body against blood poisoning
Around 60,000 ICU patients die of blood poisoning every year. More than 200,000 people get sepsis. „In the elderly, sepsis is the result of pneumonia, surgery or even an accident, "said Professor Steffen Mitzner, kidney specialist at the University of Rostock, to the news agency „dpa“. The blood poisoning can lead to organ failure in the further course. If the body of the patient is weakened too much by the inflammatory reaction, the immune system collapses completely. „The immune cells are exhausted. Then we die, we doctors are helpless.“ The treatment of blood poisoning costs billions each year.

Mitzner, along with other researchers, developed a so-called off-the-body immune support system (EISS) that works in a similar fashion to blood purification (dialysis). The doctor calls the protyp as „Teabag“ at the bedside. He refers to the fact that the contaminated with toxic and waste blood plasma of the patient is brought in the device as in a tea bag along a membrane with healthy immune cells of a donor in contact. The healthy immune cells whose donors must have the same blood group as the patient „hot and want to plunge into the fight, "explains the kidney specialist.The key advantage of EISS is that the donor cells never reach the patient's body, so that violent defense reaction can be avoided.

in the „Teabag“ The new immune cells fight the inflammatory reaction in the blood of the patient in several hours each. In addition, they release immune-activating substances that support the healing process. In the case of those affected, a significant increase in the number of corresponding markers has been demonstrated, Mitzner reported. „The patients' immune system can go on a cure for hours or a few days and regenerate during that time. "

Mortality from blood poisoning by treatment with „Teabag“ significantly reduced
Encouraging results have been obtained in animal studies and in a first clinical study of 20 patients. The mortality rate was less than 35 percent thanks to the new procedure, which is usually about 60 percent, depending on the initial disease. Already after the first circulation the circulation of the patients becomes more stable and thus an important basis for the recovery is created.

Mitzner admits, however, that it will be some time before EISS can be used in everyday clinical practice, as the research is still in its infancy. „We do no more harm than we do good. "Nevertheless, it must first be understood, „"What the cells do there and how we can better support them," explains the doctor.This is for the team of the University of Rostock and the four scientists of the company Artcline not to afford.The researchers therefore receive support from the Leipzig Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and immunology.

Michael Bauer, spokesman for the integrated research and treatment center Sepsis in Jena, also considers the so-called extracorporeal sepsis therapy to be promising, pointing in particular to the immune-activating substances released by the donor cells. „We recognize that sepsis is also a complex immunodeficiency and that the immune system needs to be stimulated, "the sepsis expert told the news agency, who found that the system was plausible.

These are the symptoms of blood poisoning
By mistake, many people believe that blood poisoning is always indicated by a red line on the skin, which gradually progresses towards the heart as the infection progresses. However, such a stroke is rare. The redness merely indicates that an inflammatory process is taking place in the lymphatics.

The first signs of sepsis are usually confusion and mental changes, as the brain is the first organ to be affected. Symptoms of blood poisoning include breathing difficulties and first signs of circulatory failure. Many sufferers also experience flu-like symptoms such as fever, general weakness and tachycardia. Another hallmark of sepsis is the rapid deterioration of the general condition, so that "patients quickly feel seriously ill". In the case of suspected blood poisoning, quick help is particularly important, as the death rate increases "between seven and eight percent with each hour the inflammatory response continues"..

Blood poisoning is usually caused by germs that enter the organism through open wounds and trigger an inflammatory process. If the wound is not treated, the pathogens can spread through the bloodstream throughout the body and affect all organs. As a result, it can lead to a deterioration of the oxygen supply to the organs. The body becomes progressively weaker until individual organs fail. Lungs, kidneys, liver and heart then fail gradually. If it is not possible to bring the inflammation under control, in the last stage of the disease the patient's circulation completely fails and the patient dies.

The risk of developing blood poisoning is especially high for people with weakened or not yet fully developed immune system. These include people over 60 years, patients without spleen and toddlers. (Ag)