Scientists aim to block killer condition

Meningococcal sepsis rash: A sign of grave danger

UK researchers are hoping to develop one of the first useful treatments for a condition directly responsible for thousands of deaths a year.

Sepsis is a chain reaction caused by an immune system over-response to infection or serious injury.

It can cause tiny blood clots to form in the major organs, in some cases shutting them down and killing the patient.

Sepsis is one of the most common causes of death for intensive care patients - approximately 3,000 die from it a year in the UK.

There have been many drugs have been developed to try to stop the chain reaction, but virtually none have proved successful in clinical trials.

However, scientists at the University of Brighton have been awarded a grant to create a blood filtration machine which they say should be able to remove a key body chemical which is reponsible for sepsis.

Chernobyl experience

Not only will it remove "cytokines" - chemical messengers which fire up the destructive chain reaction - but also "endotoxins", the fragments of bacteria left behind by some infections, such as meningococcal disease, which trigger the reaction in the first place.

We are pleased that we have been given an opportunity as at the moment there is little hope for these patient

Dr Sergey Mikhalovsky, University of Brighton

The "trademark" red or purple skin rash associated with meningococcal infection is in fact a sign of the onset of destructive sepsis.

Dr Sergey Mikhalovsky, a member of the research team, has created a porous material that can allow liquid to pass through but is small enough to trap endotoxins and cytokines.

He is an expert in filtration having created absorbent materials which helped clean radioactive materials from river water in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.

He said: "This is a totally new approach to solving the problem.

"We are pleased that we have been given an opportunity as at the moment there is little hope for these patients."

Early warning

The grant, for almost £250,000, comes from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The project is launched as research carried out by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine suggested that many doctors may not be spotting the early warning signs of sepsis early enough.

A survey of doctors in Europe and the US found that most felt sepsis symptoms to be easily misattributed to other conditions.

The society wants more information, including a common definition of the illness to be circulated to improve diagnosis.

Professor Graham Ramsay, the president-elect of ESICM, said: "The survey confirms what many experts have been saying for a long time - sepsis is notoriously hard to diagnose because so many of the symptoms such as fever, rapid pulse and respiratory difficulty can be attributed to other medical conditions."