Purpose
The intestinal microbiota has emerged as a virtual organ with essential functions in human physiology. Antibiotic-induced disruption of the microbiota in critically ill patients may have a ...negative influence on key energy resources and immunity. We set out to characterize the fecal microbiota composition in critically ill patients both with and without sepsis and to explore the use of microbiota-derived markers for clinical outcome measurements in this setting.
Methods
In this prospective observational cohort study we analyzed the fecal microbiota of 34 patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Fifteen healthy subjects served as controls. The fecal microbiota was phylogenetically characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and associations with clinical outcome parameters were evaluated.
Results
A marked shift in fecal bacterial composition was seen in all septic and non-septic critically ill patients compared with controls, with extreme interindividual differences. In 13 of the 34 patients, a single bacterial genus made up >50% of the gut microbiota; in 4 patients this was even >75%. A significant decrease in bacterial diversity was observed in half of the patients. No associations were found between microbiota diversity, Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, or Gram-positive/Gram-negative ratio and outcome measurements such as complications and survival.
Conclusions
We observed highly heterogeneous patterns of intestinal microbiota in both septic and non-septic critically ill patients. Nevertheless, some general patterns were observed, including disappearance of bacterial genera with important functions in host metabolism. More detailed knowledge of the short- and long-term health consequences of these major shifts in intestinal bacterial communities is needed.
IMPORTANCE: Sepsis is considered to induce immune suppression, leading to increased susceptibility to secondary infections with associated late mortality. OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical and ...host genomic characteristics, incidence, and attributable mortality of intensive care unit (ICU)–acquired infections in patients admitted to the ICU with or without sepsis. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective observational study comprising consecutive admissions of more than 48 hours in 2 ICUs in the Netherlands from January 2011 to July 2013 stratified according to admission diagnosis (sepsis or noninfectious). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was ICU-acquired infection (onset >48 hours). Attributable mortality risk (fraction of mortality that can be prevented by elimination of the risk factor, acquired infection) was determined using time-to-event models accounting for competing risk. In a subset of sepsis admissions (n = 461), blood gene expression (whole-genome transcriptome in leukocytes) was analyzed at baseline and at onset of ICU-acquired infectious (n = 19) and noninfectious (n = 9) events. RESULTS: The primary cohort included 1719 sepsis admissions (1504 patients; median age, 62 years; interquartile range IQR, 51-71 years; 924 men 61.4%). A comparative cohort included 1921 admissions (1825 patients, median age, 62 years; IQR, 49-71 years; 1128 men 61.8% in whom infection was not present in the first 48 hours. Intensive care unit–acquired infections occurred in 13.5% of sepsis ICU admissions (n = 232) and 15.1% of nonsepsis ICU admissions (n = 291). Patients with sepsis who developed an ICU-acquired infection had higher disease severity scores on admission than patients with sepsis who did not develop an ICU-acquired infection (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV APACHE IV median score, 90 IQR, 72-107 vs 79 IQR, 62-98; P < .001) and throughout their ICU stay but did not have differences in baseline gene expression. The population attributable mortality fraction of ICU-acquired infections in patients with sepsis was 10.9% (95% CI, 0.9%-20.6%) by day 60; the estimated difference between mortality in all patients with a sepsis admission diagnosis and mortality in those without ICU-acquired infection was 2.0% (95% CI, 0.2%-3.8%; P = .03) by day 60. Among nonsepsis ICU admissions, ICU-acquired infections had a population attributable mortality fraction of 21.1% (95% CI, 0.6%-41.7%) by day 60. Compared with baseline, blood gene expression at the onset of ICU-acquired infections showed reduced expression of genes involved in gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Intensive care unit–acquired infections occurred more commonly in patients with sepsis with higher disease severity, but such infections contributed only modestly to overall mortality. The genomic response of patients with sepsis was consistent with immune suppression at the onset of secondary infection.
Peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) catalyzes citrullination of histones, an important step for neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation. We aimed to determine the role of PAD4 during pneumonia. ...Markers of NET formation were measured in lavage fluid from airways of critically ill patients. NET formation and host defense were studied during pneumonia-derived sepsis caused by
in PAD4
and PAD4
mice. Patients with pneumosepsis, compared with those with nonpulmonary disease, showed increased citrullinated histone 3 (CitH3) levels in their airways and a trend toward elevated levels of NET markers cell-free DNA and nucleosomes. During murine pneumosepsis, CitH3 levels were increased in the lungs of PAD4
but not of PAD4
mice. Combined light and electron microscopy showed NET-like structures surrounding
in areas of CitH3 staining in the lung; however, these were also seen in PAD4
mice with absent CitH3 lung staining. Moreover, cell-free DNA and nucleosome levels were mostly similar in both groups. Moreover,
and LPS could still induce NETosis in PAD4
neutrophils. Both groups showed largely similar bacterial growth, lung inflammation, and organ injury. In conclusion, these data argue against a major role for PAD4 in NET formation, host defense, or organ injury during pneumonia-derived sepsis.
In experimental models, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can modulate various immune responses implicated in the pathogenesis of sepsis. Intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into healthy ...subjects represents a model with relevance for the host response to sepsis. To explore the use of MSCs in sepsis, we determined their effect on the response to intravenous LPS in a randomized study in 32 healthy subjects with four treatment arms: placebo or allogeneic adipose MSCs (ASCs) intravenously at either 0.25 × 106, 1 × 106, or 4 × 106 cells/kg; all subjects received LPS intravenously (2 ng/kg) one hour after the end of ASC infusion (Trial Register number 2014‐002537‐63, clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02328612). Infusion of ASCs was well tolerated. The high ASC dose increased the febrile response, exerted mixed pro‐inflammatory (enhanced interleukin‐8 and nucleosome release) and anti‐inflammatory effects (increased interleukin‐10 and transforming growth factor‐β release), and enhanced coagulation activation and reduced the fibrinolytic response. Blood leukocyte transcriptome analyses showed a biphasic effect of ASCs on the LPS response: at 2 hours post LPS, ASC‐infused subjects displayed higher expression of genes involved in innate immune pathways, whereas at 4 hours post LPS these subjects had lower expression of innate immune pathway genes. Infusion of ASCs did not modify the “ex vivo” responsiveness of whole blood to various bacterial agonists. These results indicate that intravenous infusion of allogeneic ASCs (4 × 106 cells/kg) has a variety of proinflammatory, anti‐inflammatory, and procoagulant effects during human endotoxemia. Further studies are needed to assess the safety and efficacy of ASCs in sepsis patients. Stem Cells 2018;36:1778–1788
To explore the use of MSCs in sepsis, we determined their effect on the response to intravenous LPS in a randomized study in 32 healthy subjects with four treatment arms: placebo or allogeneic adipose MSCs (ASCs) intravenously at either 0.25 × 106, 1 × 106, or 4 × 106 cells/kg; all subjects received LPS intravenously (2 ng/kg) one hour after the end of ASC infusion. Primary endpoints included clinical signs and symptoms, leukocyte activation, cytokine release, activation of coagulation and vascular endothelium, genome‐wide mRNA expression profiles, and ex vivo responsiveness of blood leukocytes.
Purpose
Sepsis is the most frequent cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). The “Acute Disease Quality Initiative Workgroup” recently proposed new definitions for AKI, classifying it as transient or ...persistent. We investigated the incidence, mortality, and host response aberrations associated with transient and persistent AKI in sepsis patients.
Methods
A total of 1545 patients admitted with sepsis to 2 intensive care units in the Netherlands were stratified according to the presence (defined by any urine or creatinine RIFLE criterion within the first 48 h) and evolution of AKI (with persistent defined as remaining > 48 h). We determined 30-day mortality by logistic regression adjusting for confounding variables and analyzed 16 plasma biomarkers reflecting pathways involved in sepsis pathogenesis (
n
= 866) and blood leukocyte transcriptomes (
n
= 392).
Results
AKI occurred in 37.7% of patients, of which 18.4% was transient and 81.6% persistent. On admission, patients with persistent AKI had higher disease severity scores and more frequently had severe (injury or failure) RIFLE AKI stages than transient AKI patients. Persistent AKI, but not transient AKI, was associated with increased mortality by day 30 and up to 1 year. Persistent AKI was associated with enhanced and sustained inflammatory and procoagulant responses during the first 4 days, and a more severe loss of vascular integrity compared with transient AKI. Baseline blood gene expression showed minimal differences with respect to the presence or evolution of AKI.
Conclusion
Persistent AKI is independently associated with sepsis mortality, as well as with sustained inflammatory and procoagulant responses, and loss of vascular integrity as compared with transient AKI.
Purpose
There is limited knowledge on how the source of infection impacts the host response to sepsis. We aimed to compare the host response in sepsis patients with a single, known source at ...admission (< 24 h) to the intensive care unit.
Methods
From the molecular diagnosis and risk stratification of sepsis (MARS) prospective cohort, we measured 16 plasma host response biomarkers reflective of key host response pathways in 621 sepsis patients. In a subgroup (
n
= 335), blood leukocyte transcriptomes were compared between the sources. Differences in clinical patient profiles and survival were compared in the whole sepsis cohort (
n
= 2019).
Results
The plasma biomarker cohort was categorized into sepsis originating from the respiratory tract (
n
= 334, 53.8%), abdomen (
n
= 159, 25.6%), urinary tract (
n
= 44, 7.1%), cardiovascular (
n
= 41, 6.6%), central nervous system (CNS) (
n
= 18, 2.9%), or skin (
n
= 25, 4%). This analysis revealed stronger inflammatory and cytokine responses, loss of vascular integrity and coagulation activation in abdominal sepsis relative to respiratory. Endothelial cell activation was prominent in urinary, cardiovascular and skin infections, while CNS infection was associated with the least host response aberrations. The leukocyte transcriptional response showed the largest overlap between abdominal and pulmonary infections (76% in common); notable differences between the sources were detected regarding hemostasis, cytokine signaling, innate and adaptive immune, and metabolic transcriptional pathways. After adjustment for confounders, the source of infection remained an independent contributor to 30-day mortality (unadjusted
p
= 0.001, adjusted
p
= 0.028).
Conclusion
Sepsis heterogeneity is partly explained by source-specific host response dysregulations and should be considered when selecting patients for trials testing immune modulatory drugs.
Preclinical studies have suggested that platelets influence the host response during sepsis. We sought to assess the association of admission thrombocytopenia with the presentation, outcome, and host ...response in patients with sepsis. Nine hundred thirty-one consecutive sepsis patients were stratified according to platelet counts (very low <50 × 109/L, intermediate-low 50 × 109 to 99 × 109/L, low 100 × 109 to 149 × 109/L, or normal 150 × 109 to 399 × 109/L) on admission to the intensive care unit. Sepsis patients with platelet counts <50 × 109/L and 50 × 109 to 99 × 109/L presented with higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation scores and more shock. Both levels of thrombocytopenia were independently associated with increased 30-day mortality (hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals 2.00 1.32-3.05 and 1.72 1.22-2.44, respectively). To account for baseline differences besides platelet counts, propensity matching was performed, after which the association between thrombocytopenia and the host response was tested, as evaluated by measuring 17 plasma biomarkers indicative of activation and/or dysregulation of pathways implicated in sepsis pathogenesis and by whole genome blood leukocyte expression profiling. In the propensity matched cohort, platelet counts < 50 × 109/L were associated with increased cytokine levels and enhanced endothelial cell activation. All thrombocytopenic groups showed evidence of impaired vascular integrity, whereas coagulation activation was similar between groups. Blood microarray analysis revealed a distinct gene expression pattern in sepsis patients with <50 × 109/L platelets, showing reduced signaling in leukocyte adhesion and diapedesis and increased complement signaling. These data show that admission thrombocytopenia is associated with enhanced mortality and a more disturbed host response during sepsis independent of disease severity, thereby providing clinical validity to animal studies on the role of platelets in severe infection.
•Thrombocytopenia on intensive care unit admission is independently associated with increased mortality in patients with sepsis.•Thrombocytopenia is associated with a more disturbed host response in critically ill patients with sepsis independent of disease severity.
Background
A prolonged prothrombin time (PT) is a common feature in sepsis indicating consumptive coagulopathy.
Objectives
To determine the association between a prolonged PT and aberrations in other ...host response mechanisms in sepsis.
Methods
Patients admitted to the intensive care unit with sepsis were divided in quartiles according to the highest PT value measured within 24 h after admission. The host response was evaluated by measuring 19 plasma biomarkers reflecting pathways implicated in sepsis pathogenesis and by blood leukocyte gene expression profiling.
Measurements and Main Results
Of 1524 admissions for sepsis, 386 (25.3%) involved patients with a normal PT (≤12.7 s); the remaining quartiles entailed 379 (24.9%) patients with a slightly prolonged PT (12.8 ≤ PT ≤ 15.0 s), 383 (25.1%) with an intermediately prolonged PT (15.1 ≤ PT ≤ 17.2 s), and 376 (24.7%) with an extremely prolonged PT (≥17.3 s). While patients with an extremely prolonged PT showed an increased crude mortality up to 1 year after admission, none of the prolonged PT groups was independently associated with 30‐day adjusted mortality. Comparison of the host response between patients with a normal PT or an extremely prolonged PT matched for baseline characteristics including severity of disease showed that an extremely prolonged PT was associated with impaired anticoagulant mechanisms, a more disturbed endothelial barrier integrity and increased systemic inflammation, and blood leukocyte transcriptomes indicating more prominent metabolic reprogramming and protein catabolism.
Conclusion
A prolonged PT is associated with stronger anomalies in pathways implicated in the pathogenesis of sepsis, suggesting that activation of coagulation impacts other host response mechanisms.
Abstract
Background
A greater understanding of disease heterogeneity may facilitate precision medicine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Previous work identified four distinct clinical ...phenotypes associated with outcome and treatment responses in non-COVID-19 sepsis patients, but it is unknown if and how these phenotypes are recapitulated in COVID-19 sepsis patients.
Methods
We applied the four non-COVID-19 sepsis phenotypes to a total of 52,274 critically ill patients, comprising two cohorts of COVID-19 sepsis patients (admitted before and after the introduction of dexamethasone as standard treatment) and three non-COVID-19 sepsis cohorts (non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia sepsis, bacterial pneumonia sepsis, and bacterial sepsis of non-pulmonary origin). Differences in proportions of phenotypes and their associated mortality were determined across these cohorts.
Results
Phenotype distribution was highly similar between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia sepsis cohorts, whereas the proportion of patients with the δ-phenotype was greater in both bacterial sepsis cohorts compared to the viral sepsis cohorts. The introduction of dexamethasone treatment was associated with an increased proportion of patients with the δ-phenotype (6% vs. 11% in the pre- and post-dexamethasone COVID-19 cohorts, respectively,
p
< 0.001). Across the cohorts, the α-phenotype was associated with the most favorable outcome, while the δ-phenotype was associated with the highest mortality. Survival of the δ-phenotype was markedly higher following the introduction of dexamethasone (60% vs 41%,
p
< 0.001), whereas no relevant differences in survival were observed for the other phenotypes among COVID-19 patients.
Conclusions
Classification of critically ill COVID-19 patients into clinical phenotypes may aid prognostication, prediction of treatment efficacy, and facilitation of personalized medicine.
The capacity of blood leukocytes to produce cytokines upon stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was measured in 77 patients on the first morning after ICU admission. Patients were divided in ...four groups based on quartiles of LPS stimulated tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha release, reflecting increasing extents of immune suppression. 15 host response biomarkers indicative of aberrations in inflammatory pathways implicated in sepsis pathogenesis were measured in plasma. A diminished capacity of blood leukocytes to produce TNF-alpha upon stimulation with LPS was accompanied by a correspondingly reduced ability to release of IL-1beta and IL-6. Concurrently measured plasma concentrations of host response biomarkers demonstrated that the degree of reduction in TNF-alpha release by blood leukocytes was associated with increasing systemic inflammation, stronger endothelial cell activation, loss of endothelial barrier integrity and enhanced procoagulant responses. In patients admitted to the ICU the strongest immune suppression occurs in those who simultaneously display signs of stronger systemic inflammation. These findings may have relevance for the selection of patients eligible for administration of immune enhancing agents.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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