Clinical practice of sepsis-induced immunosuppression: Current immunotherapy and future options

Abstract

Sepsis is a potentially fatal condition characterized by the failure of one or more organs due to a disordered host response to infection. The development of sepsis is closely linked to immune dysfunction. As a result, immunotherapy has gained traction as a promising approach to sepsis treatment, as it holds the potential to reverse immunosuppression and restore immune balance, thereby improving the prognosis of septic patients. However, due to the highly heterogeneous nature of sepsis, it is crucial to carefully select the appropriate patient population for immunotherapy. This review summarizes the current and evolved treatments for sepsis-induced immunosuppression to enhance clinicians' understanding and practical application of immunotherapy in the management of sepsis.

Keywords: Classifier; Enrichment; Immunotherapy; Sepsis; Sepsis-induced immunosuppression.

Fig. 1

Future immunotherapy strategy for sepsis. “Enrichment strategy” refers to the treatment of different subgroups, which are classified based on clinical characteristics, biological features, and the clinical course of a disease. “Classifier strategy”, on the other hand, involves treating patients based on their therapeutic responsiveness to specific immune drugs. In this approach, clinical characteristics, biological features, and omics information are used to identify the characteristics of therapeutic responsiveness and establish a classifier for the specific immune drug.