Unfractioned Heparin for Treatment of Sepsis Caused by Abdominal Infection

Summary

Sepsis is the leading cause of death in intensive care units and a major public health concern in the world. Heparin, a widely used anticoagulant medicine to prevent or treat thrombotic disorders, has been demonstrated to prevent organ damage and lethality in experimental sepsis models. However, the efficacy of heparin in the treatment of clinical sepsis is not consistent. Caspase-11, a cytosolic receptor of LPS, triggers lethal immune responses in sepsis. Recently, we have revealed that heparin prevents cytosolic delivery of LPS and caspase-11 activation in sepsis through inhibiting the heparanase-mediated glycocalyx degradation and the HMGB1- LPS interaction, which is independent of its anticoagulant properties. In our study, it is found that heparin treatment could prevent lethal responses in endotoxemia or Gram-negative sepsis, while caspase-11 deficiency or heparin treatment failed to confer protection against sepsis caused by Staphylococcus aureus, a type of Gram-positive bacterium. It is probably that other pathogens such as Gram-positive bacteria might cause death through mechanisms distinct from that of Gram-negative bacteria. Peptidoglycan, a cell-wall component of Gram-positive bacteria, can cause DIC and impair survival in primates by activating both extrinsic and intrinsic coagulation pathways, which might not be targeted by heparin. We speculate that the discrepancy between the previous clinical trials of heparin might be due to the difference in infected pathogens. Thus, stratification of patients based on the type of invading pathogens might improve the therapeutic efficiency of heparin in sepsis, and this merits future investigations.

Timeline

Start

2021-05-11

Primary completion

2023-12-30

Completion

2024-07-30

Publications

• Background Tang Y, Wang X, Li Z, He Z, Yang X, Cheng X, Peng Y, Xue Q, Bai Y, Zhang R, Zhao K, Liang F, Xiao X, Andersson U, Wang H, Billiar TR, Lu B. Heparin prevents caspase-11-dependent septic lethality independent of anticoagulant properties. Immunity. 2021 Mar 9;54(3):454-467.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2021.01.007. Epub 2021 Feb 8.
• Background Deng M, Tang Y, Li W, Wang X, Zhang R, Zhang X, Zhao X, Liu J, Tang C, Liu Z, Huang Y, Peng H, Xiao L, Tang D, Scott MJ, Wang Q, Liu J, Xiao X, Watkins S, Li J, Yang H, Wang H, Chen F, Tracey KJ, Billiar TR, Lu B. The Endotoxin Delivery Protein HMGB1 Mediates Caspase-11-Dependent Lethality in Sepsis. Immunity. 2018 Oct 16;49(4):740-753.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2018.08.016. Epub 2018 Oct 9.
• Background Yang X, Cheng X, Tang Y, Qiu X, Wang Y, Kang H, Wu J, Wang Z, Liu Y, Chen F, Xiao X, Mackman N, Billiar TR, Han J, Lu B. Bacterial Endotoxin Activates the Coagulation Cascade through Gasdermin D-Dependent Phosphatidylserine Exposure. Immunity. 2019 Dec 17;51(6):983-996.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2019.11.005. Epub 2019 Dec 10.
• Background Yang X, Cheng X, Tang Y, Qiu X, Wang Z, Fu G, Wu J, Kang H, Wang J, Wang H, Chen F, Xiao X, Billiar TR, Lu B. The role of type 1 interferons in coagulation induced by gram-negative bacteria. Blood. 2020 Apr 2;135(14):1087-1100. doi: 10.1182/blood.2019002282.
• Background Lu Y, Meng R, Wang X, Xu Y, Tang Y, Wu J, Xue Q, Yu S, Duan M, Shan D, Wang Q, Wang H, Billiar TR, Xiao X, Chen F, Lu B. Caspase-11 signaling enhances graft-versus-host disease. Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 6;10(1):4044. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11895-2.

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