A life-threatening condition which causes inflammation and can severely damage internal organs could be better treated, scientists have found.
Sepsis, in which the immune system goes into overdrive and attacks its own organs and tissues, is even more dangerous to people with existing medical conditions, particularly those with asthma, as the inflammation can spiral out of control in already sensitive air ways.
But scientists at Temple University School of Medicine have found that by blocking the activity of a protein called STIM1.
Studies on mice show that doing this can prevent the inflammation getting out of control and can protect the lungs from severe damage.
STIM1 controls the amount of calcium in a cell, which is important in the cell communicating with the rest of the body.
In sepsis, a bacterial infection releases toxins which cause damage to cells, STIM proteins detect the damage and increase the amount of calcium heading to the cells. This chain of events causes inflammation and causes the immune system to work harder than it needs to, which can lead to fluid in the lungs.
In the experiment on mice exposed to the sepsis toxin, those without STIM1 in the cells did not experience a change in the calcium being sent to cells within the body, and the lungs were protected against severe damage.
Sepsis is usually treated with antibiotics, but the condition still leads to the death of a large percentage of people.
The results from the latest study could lead to the development of treatment that could stop the inflammation caused by sepsis from spiralling out of control and causing severe damage to internal organs, but may also lead scientists to develop better treatment for conditions such as asthma.
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