Biotechnology, at the forefront of the fight against sepsis, one of the world's most serious and deadly conditions, with a 20% mortality rate

Sepsis is one of the most serious and deadly conditions in the world, with a 20% mortality rate, which has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to prioritize the development of solutions to improve its prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Additionally, with an average hospital cost of more than $32,000 per patient in developed countries, it represents a significant burden on healthcare systems worldwide, making the fight against it in developing countries almost an impossible challenge.

From a technical standpoint, sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune system reacts in an extreme way to an infection, causing organ dysfunction. The body's reaction damages its own tissues and organs and can lead to shock, multiple organ failure, and sometimes death, especially if not detected and treated in time.

This September 13th, on World Sepsis Day, AseBio is highlighting this “silent” condition, which still does not receive the attention it deserves despite its significant impact on many people's lives: 22% of sepsis survivors who required intensive care suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and 17% of survivors experience moderate to severe cognitive impairment. Even if we save a life, and especially if diagnosis and treatment are delayed, survivors may struggle to regain their previous quality of life.

“Research is key in the fight against sepsis, driven by both public institutions and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and innovation firms like Viva in Vitro,” says Toni Vilaplana, CEO of the biotechnology company whose mission is to reduce mortality caused by sepsis.

Biotechnology is playing a fundamental role in the fight against sepsis, as noted by Elisa Martín Garijo, Director of the Health Department at the Institute of Knowledge Engineering (IIC): “Since the 1970s, efforts have focused on finding tools to anticipate the development of sepsis, as we know that in sepsis, time is life. Initial developments focused on biomarkers or lab markers that could indicate the onset of sepsis, but the major breakthrough has come with artificial intelligence.”

Measuring NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation in Ex Vivo Monocytes: A Novel Approach

The best way to combat sepsis is through information and anticipation in the screening process to "stratify patients by mortality risk and predict their evolution," explains Vilaplana. The scientific community and hospitals consider it a priority to focus on patient stratification and the value of having this information in the early stages. This is precisely where Viva in Vitro has found one of the answers, thanks to the research of Dr. Pablo Pelegrín, co-founder of the company and one of the top 10 most recognized researchers in the world in the field of inflammasome biomedicine.

Vilaplana points out that over 250 biomarkers have been documented for their potential use in diagnosing sepsis, but most have not been adopted in clinical practice. “The current development of immunological biomarkers for sepsis focuses on rapid diagnosis, which could improve early detection and treatment initiation. However, these approaches mainly target the immediate identification of sepsis rather than long-term prognosis or patient stratification. Others aim to provide more specific antibiotics to patients, limiting the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, but these are still limited proposals.”

Viva in Vitro has introduced a novel approach by measuring NLRP3 inflammasome activation in ex vivo monocytes, addressing a critical gap in current sepsis treatment: the rapid stratification (within the first 24 hours) of septic patients with sepsis-induced immunosuppression. “By focusing on patient stratification and prognosis, our developing solution, Viva Sepscare®, offers a unique and necessary perspective on sepsis, perfectly complementing established and emerging biomarkers. It provides crucial information on the immune status of patients and facilitates personalized treatment strategies from the outset,” argues Vilaplana. He emphasizes that this approach “not only complements rapid diagnostic technologies but also improves overall patient management by predicting sepsis outcomes more accurately, thereby addressing a critical need in the current landscape of sepsis biomarkers.”

Artificial Intelligence Opens New Possibilities for Early and Personalized Sepsis Care

Machine Learning and Deep Learning models, developed and trained by the Institute of Knowledge Engineering (IIC) using tens of thousands of real cases, enable the prediction of which patients are at high risk of developing sepsis based on both linear and non-linear associations. This is done with greater anticipation and accuracy than an expert physician. This effort has led to the creation of BIAlert Sepsis.

BIAlert Sepsis is an intelligent alert system that helps healthcare professionals expedite and improve the diagnosis of sepsis and septic shock, reducing the false positives and negatives often generated by traditional rule-based medical protocols. It is a recommendation system or decision-support platform powered by artificial intelligence.

“BIAlert Sepsis alerts clinicians about patients who may develop sepsis within the next 24 hours, in real time. To do this, it combines medical knowledge from the published Sepsis Code protocols with AI techniques, which analyze historical medical data to infer new sepsis cases,” explains Elisa Martín.

The tool operates using updated hospital data, automatically pulling information from medical records without adding extra work for the healthcare professional. The smart alerts are displayed in real time through an intuitive color-coded web interface, with the option to integrate them into the patient's medical record. Additionally, the system provides information on the relevant variables that form the basis of the alerts, making it easier to validate and use in daily clinical practice.

BIAlert Sepsis has been proving its effectiveness for two and a half years at the Son Llàtzer University Hospital in Palma de Mallorca. According to results shared by the IIC, the tool predicts sepsis risk 24 hours in advance with a 96% predictive accuracy, significantly reducing the high rates of false positives and negatives seen in traditional protocols. This is after being trained with data from more than 200,000 Spanish patients.