Molecules may hold the key to preventing sepsis

KILDARE:THERE'S A LOT to be said for nipping a situation in the bud and that's exactly what a research group at NUI Maynooth is hoping to do for the body's inflammation processes, which can have serious and sometimes life-threatening effects when they run amok.

Inflammation is something of a double-edged sword, says Prof Paul Moynagh, director of the Institute of Immunology at NUI Maynooth.

"The inflammatory response is an important part of our defence system - it helps to eliminate a bacteria when we get infected," he explains. "But it has to be very controlled, because it also has the potential to damage our own tissue. And it's very important that when an infection has been eliminated that the inflammatory response is switched off."

But in some cases that off-switch doesn't get thrown, and this can cause a serious problem for patients who develop sepsis - a condition sparked by infection after surgery where the body's inflammatory processes run out of control.

"Normally, if you have got an infection in your hand then the inflammatory response is very localised to where the infection is. But in sepsis that changes," says Moynagh. "It can affect heart output, decrease heart contractivity, and you can suffer from a lack of perfusion of essential organs and end up with multiple organ failure."

Sepsis acts fast and is difficult to treat, but the NUIM research, which is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, has been looking at ways to block the cellular "on" signals for inflammation, dampening down a response that is in danger of running out of control.

By teasing out the processes the body naturally uses to detect and respond to an invading bacterium, Prof Moynagh's team identified a key reaction between two molecules that help relay the "inflammation on" message within affected cells. Next they developed another molecule, a peptide, to block that key reaction, he explains.

"In our cell culture studies the peptide shows very interesting inhibitory effects," he says. "The initial suggestions are that we can interrupt that causative cycle where things go out of control."

The team is now starting to look at the peptide's potential in animal and human cell systems. "That will give us a very good measure of the potential of this molecule to eventually become a therapeutic," he says.