Bacterial sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to a severe bacterial infection and can, depending on severity, be accompanied by fever, hypotension, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and multiple organ failure. Sepsis is caused by cytokines that are produced in response to lipopolysaccharides (LPS, also called endotoxins), which are components of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria. Despite years of research, no drug has been developed that specifically targets the aggressive immune response that characterizes sepsis. Sepsis treatment mainly focuses on treating the symptoms of sepsis by securing the airway, correcting hypoxemia, and administering fluids. While antibiotics can eradicate the bacterial infection, they do not necessarily eliminate lipopolysaccharides, which are still capable of inducing a severe immune response when detached from the bacterium and after the infection has been cleared. Therefore, effective sepsis treatment options are still lacking. As such, novel treatments options directed at LPS sequestration and the inflammatory response to LPS are required.
About 1.6 million people are treated in U.S. hospitals annually for sepsis, 750,000 of these for severe sepsis. The mortality rate for sepsis in the US is between 23% and 43%. Sepsis was the 11th leading cause of death in 2010, and the leading cause of death in non-cardiac intensive care units. In developing countries, sepsis accounts for 60-80% of all deaths. In 2008, $14.6 billion were spent on hospitalizations for sepsis in the US.