Actin-binding Proteins in Sepsis

Abstract

Diagnosis of sepsis still remains one of the major challenges in medicine. Global estimates suggest 19 million hospitalized individuals with sepsis per year. Since sepsis is a multifaceted syndrome rather than a disease, it is difficult to raise objective diagnostic criteria. Sepsis was defined by the first international panel as a systemic inflammatory response to infection. Improved knowledge in the pathophysiology of the syndrome led to the refinement of its definition and is recently characterized as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Despite of improving trends in acute mortality, lethality of septic shock can still be as high as 40–55%. Unfortunately, standardized microbial culturing methods are time-consuming and own limited efficiency. Therefore, besides the heterogeneous clinical symptoms (e.g. respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological dysfunctions), laboratory parameters (coagulation, liver and renal function tests) and protein markers are mandatory for early recognition and treatment of this life-threatening condition. Currently, serum procalcitonin (PCT) is the most widely used marker in sepsis. PCT may accurately differentiate systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) from sepsis moreover, promising studies came to light regarding PCT-guided antibiotic therapy (5-7). A frequently investigated acute-phase protein in sepsis is high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) however, even local infections could trigger its synthesis. Hoping to find additional potential markers in sepsis, we elucidated the predictive value of serum actin and that of its binding proteins.