Treating Sepsis
5/20/26
Sepsis is a deadly condition that occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection, damaging tissues and organs. In 2017, there were an estimated 49 million cases of sepsis worldwide. One meta-analysis found that 32% of people with sepsis die within 90 days, rising to 39% for those with septic shock. But a novel approach that filters out a driver of this process would stop sepsis in its tracks.
A protein called galectin-3 has many functions in healthy people, which led researchers to wonder if it might contribute to sepsis. Accordingly, they developed a device to filter galectin-3 from a patient’s blood, process the blood to remove the galectin-3, and process the blood plasma before transfusing it back into the patient.
Although more testing and research are needed, several studies involving humans and test animals have shown that the filtering process does indeed reduce galectin-3 levels in the blood, potentially providing a cure for sepsis.