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Recent Advances in Therapy of Sepsis

Focus on Recombinant Bactericidal/Permeability-Increasing Protein (BPI)

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Summary

The inability to reduce the high mortality due to overwhelming bacterial infection and sepsis has prompted a search for new therapeutic agents. Among these may be a wide range of endogenous antibiotic polypeptides that are prominent components of effective antimicrobial host defences. One of these polypeptide antibiotics is the bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI), a protein of approximately 55kD which is present in human and other mammalian neutrophils. BPI is toxic for Gram-negative bacteria and binds to endotoxin, resulting in its clearance and neutralisation. Arecombinant 21kD N-terminal BPI fragment is at least as active as holo-BPI and protects both animals and humans against the effects of Gram-negative infections and their complications. Phase II/III clinical trials in fulminant paediatric meningococcaemia, haemorrhagic trauma, hepatectomy and severe peritoneal infections are in progress.

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  1. Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Peter Elsbach

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Correspondence to Peter Elsbach.

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Elsbach, P. Recent Advances in Therapy of Sepsis. BioDrugs 9, 435–442 (1998). https://doi.org/10.2165/00063030-199809060-00001

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