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Removing certain antibodies from聽a patient鈥檚 blood stream may prevent life-threatening bacterial infections from spreading, and could be the key to treating sepsis in some patients.

(UQ) researchers examined how Escherichia coli (E. coli) in the blood stream can trigger sepsis, an extreme and damaging inflammatory response to infection with a high chance of mortality.

鈥�E. coli is the most common cause of urinary tract infections, and in some people, the bacteria can enter and survive in the bloodstream, leading to sepsis,鈥� said UQ Diamantina Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr Timothy Wells.

鈥淔or the bacteria to survive, it needs to be resistant to human serum, which is a component of blood similar in composition to blood plasma.鈥�

Antibodies found in human serum normally protect against infection by binding to bacteria, allowing them to be targeted for killing by 鈥榗omplement鈥� proteins.

鈥淲e found that 24%聽of patients with sepsis caused by E. coli had high amounts of antibodies that inhibited that process,鈥� Dr Wells said.聽鈥淭hese inhibitory antibodies actually protected the bacteria by binding to them and forming a protective wall around them.

鈥淥ur results suggest that in some of the patients, the bacteria would not have been able to survive in the blood without these 鈥榠nhibitory antibodies鈥� being present.

鈥淭he high number of patients with inhibitory antibodies suggests this mechanism of serum resistance for E. coli in sepsis is widespread.鈥�

Dr Wells said that removing inhibitory antibodies from the blood restored its ability to kill bacteria.

鈥淭hese inhibitory antibodies are not just limited to E. coli.聽We recently treated two patients with lung infections who also had inhibitory antibodies.

鈥淲e used a method called plasmapheresis 鈥� when a patient鈥檚 blood plasma is removed and replaced 鈥� removing the inhibitory antibodies.

鈥淭his led to an immediate improvement in their health, so new methods that inactivate or remove these 鈥榖ad鈥� antibodies may be useful to prevent and treat sepsis.鈥�

The study has been聽published in .

Image credit: 漏stock.adobe.com/au/Green Vector