Experts discuss link between sepsis and Covid-19

At a virtual conference on sepsis and its relation to Covid-19 held at the University Hospital Charité in Berlin, Niels Riedemann, CEO of Inflarx NV, showed data suggesting that sepsis is diagnosed in 100% of COVID associated deaths, with respiratory failure as the predominant organ failure. According to Konrad Reinhard, founding president of the Global Sepsis Alliance, the systemic infection that ends in multiorgan failure, caused  19.7% of all deaths worldwide in 2017, with 48.9 cases and 11 million deaths.

Currently, most experimental COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines are aimed at blocking the spread of the viral infection and treat early stages of the disease. In Berlin, the researchers hypothesised that experimental therapeutics that slow down the progression of later stages of COVID-19 might help reduce the mortality rate in infected risk groups. According to Riedemann, slowing down the progression from pneumonia to sepsis would be a beneficial strategy.

Alexandre Mebazza from Hospital Lariboisiere in Paris (France) presented data from the AdrenOSS-2 Phase II study demonstrating that the antibody candidate adrecizumab clearly reduced mortality in patients with early septic shock. Futher data presented at the symposium suggest that certain sepsis biomarkers might help to identify risk patients for septic shock, including respiratory failure. The developers are working to confirm the working hypothesis that interventions that block sepsis might also improve outcomes in Covid-19 patients.