Precision medicine to combat sepsis with Salamanca

Principal Investigator of the Biosepsis Group at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), Dr. Jesús Bermejo, together with the European consortium EGIS, has led pioneering work that represents a significant advance in the field of precision medicine for the treatment of sepsis. brought an end to the high mortality rate.

In an article published in Lancet of Respiratory Medicinejournal with the greatest global impact in the field of respiratory health, all existing methods have been identified and applied to assess the immune response in the disease, which will facilitate its early diagnosis and the application of more personalized treatment.

Sepsis, the body’s extreme response to infection, has a mortality rate of 10 to 20%, which rises to 40% in septic shock, and is responsible for about 17,000 deaths per year in Spain.

After two years of hard work, experts from different specialties, members of the European Group for the Immunology of Sepsis (EGIS), coordinated by IBSAL and the Center for Sepsis Care and Control Jena (Germany), managed to bring together all the clinical tools available in the hospital. Centers and other centers will soon be established through which “immunological photography” can be carried out.

This method will allow us to better determine when an infection develops into sepsis, while at the same time starting earlier and better tailoring treatment. “We’ve already learned from the cancer world that treatment has to be personalized, because with sepsis it has to be the same,” says Dr. Jesús Bermejo.

Using simple procedures ranging from flow cytometry to newer ones related to gene expression, the use of biosensors to determine protein levels or devices such as nephelometer to determine immunoglobulins, etc., to analyze the significance of various biomarkers that can be measured in blood.

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