Irish scientists have made a breakthrough, which has the potential to prevent sepsis from becoming a life-threatening condition.

Sepsis, also known as septicaemia or blood poisoning, is a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection or injury, in which large amounts of bacteria are present in the blood.

An estimated 30 millions cases of sepsis occur worldwide each year and cases of the condition are more common than heart attacks and claim more lives than cancer annually.

According to figures from the HSE, while the average length of stay in 2013 for a hospital patients was just over five days, for a patient with sepsis, the average was 26 days.

However, scientists from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin City University and the University of Leuven in Belgium have discovered a new treatment, which has the potential to prevent sepsis from progressing through the body and becoming a life-threatening condition.

The new drug works by preventing bacteria that may get into the bloodstream, from sticking to the inner-most side of the blood vessel.

Usually with sepsis, bacteria interact with the vessel and this leads to the regulation of the cells that line the inside of the blood vessel becoming impaired. As a result, these cells die and then start to pull apart from each other, causing the blood vessel to leak. This leads to the spread of the condition and the collapse of the circulatory system.

When this occurs, failure of the body's vital organs is rapid as the blood supply to these organs is not adequate. The new drugs prevents this progression.

"Currently, there are no approved specific treatments for the underlying pathophysiology of sepsis, which means the disease management plan focuses on reducing the infection through use of aggressive intravenous antibiotics. These antibiotics are often delivered in high concentrations for long periods of time.

"However, with the rapid global emergence of multiple antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, which is directly attributed to prolonged use of antibiotics, treatment is becoming increasingly difficult. Therefore any new discovery that aims to prevent disease progression or treat this deadly disease is welcome," commented the study's lead researcher, Dr Steve Kerrigan, of the RCSI.

He explained that sepsis is a particularly dangerous condition because it is unpredictable and can progress quickly.

"One of the main challenges with sepsis is that early signs are often non-specific and develop rapidly from what looks like a mild infection to a life threatening situation," he noted.

He pointed out that it is ‘the most expensive condition to treat in hospitals' and currently costs the global economy over €18 billion per year.

"This places a severe burden on our already over-stretched healthcare system so we hope this new drug will decrease this cost to the Exchequer. There is also the human impact as sepsis causes significant long-term disability for patients, which really does have a personal impact on them and their families," Dr Kerrigan added.

A patent has been filed on the drug target and Dr Kerrigan is now seeking to begin commercialisation, with a view to moving towards human clinical trials in the very near future.

Details of this breakthrough are published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.