Woman who lost limbs to sepsis 'excited' by new genetic breakthrough in treatment
Ravneet Nandra reports on the potential breakthrough in the treatment of sepsis.
A woman who lost her arms and legs to sepsis has welcomed a breakthrough in treatment which could help others with the same condition.
Kim Smith, 62, from Milton Keynes, said news of a more personalised way of treating the disease based on genetics was "exciting".
Ms Smith contracted sepsis after a urine infection turned into a blood infection while she was on holiday in Spain in November 2018.
She was put into a coma and doctors had to remove her limbs when she returned to the UK.
She said: "When the doctor came into the room and said 'we need to amputate your limbs, they've died' I just said 'yeah that's fine, get them off! How soon could you do it?'"
"I could see that they were black. I could see that they needed to come off. I wanted to live. Then I had to go to rehab in London to learn how to sit up and move again."
Sepsis is when the body's immune response to infection goes out of control and injures its own tissues and organs.But the varying response of the immune system in each patient poses a problem to experts when developing treatments - as what works for one person may not for another.
A team from the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire has uncovered how different people respond to sepsis based on their genetic make-up.
Dr Katie Burnham, author of the new study, said: "We have previously measured genetic activity in the immune cells from sepsis patients and from that, we identified there are two subgroups of patients with different immune responses.
"This was partially driven by the patients' genetic backgrounds and from that, we were able to identify control genes that seemed to be pushing people into higher risk.
"And those control genes, those regulators, could then be useful for thinking about developing targeted therapies."
What is sepsis?
Sepsis is a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection. It kills 11 million people worldwide every year. The infection-fighting processes turn on the body, causing the organs to work poorly. Sepsis may progress to septic shock. This is a dramatic drop in blood pressure that can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs.
Why do people have to have their arms and legs removed?
Sepsis can cause blood clots in the limbs, blocking blood supply - this can lead to tissue death and gangrene. It can also cause nerve damage which can also mean amputation.
How is sepsis treated?
With antibiotics - wide-ranging ones to begin with then more targeted drugs once medics find which germ is causing issues with the patient.
What is this new study, in a nutshell?
Doctors examined 1,400 people and looked at their genetic make-up and then how their immune system responded to sepsis.
They were able to categorise the reactions of certain groups of people with similar genetics.
They were then able to see what was going on at a molecular level during their immune responses.
Understanding what is going on in the body when people have different reactions to sepsis helps take experts a step closer to creating bespoke treatments for people based on their genes.
Nearly a quarter of a million people in the UK are affected by sepsis, and worldwide one person dies every three seconds.
It is hoped the breakthrough can lead to a more personalised approach to treating sepsis.
Ms Smith said: "I felt so excited to hear this news. It's a breakthrough and to me it sounds like a huge breakthrough. It's absolutely fantastic news."
Despite her amputations, she counts herself as lucky to be alive and has been fighting to raise awareness ever since her encounter with sepsis.
She said: "I'm living life. I'm living my best life and I'm raising awareness, I'm saving lives and that's more important than anything to me. And I'm so glad I survived."
The next step is to start clinical trials of the sepsis test.