Breakthrough sepsis treatment moves into trials

A vitamin C regime specially formulated at the Florey is being trialled in an intensive care setting after showing promise in reversing multi-organ failure caused by sepsis. Developed by Professor Clive May and Dr Yugeesh Lankadeva, the antioxidant regime was used to treat a COVID-19 patient who was critically ill in hospital with multi-organ failure.

Sepsis is a life-threatening response to an underlying infection which can lead to multi-organ failure and death. Although sepsis is the main cause of death in ICU and responsible for 11 million deaths globally each year, no treatments are available to reverse its effects.

“After four years in development, we started trialling intravenous delivery of a mega-dose of sodium ascorbate, the sodium salt of vitamin C, in a large animal study in early 2020. The results were quite remarkable,” said Professor May. He explained, “We saw rapid improvements in body temperature and heart, kidney, lung and liver function with no adverse effects. Essentially, we were witnessing a reversal of sepsis-induced multi-organ failure.”

When Professor May, Dr Lankadeva and their collaborator, Professor Rinaldo Bellomo, Director of Intensive Care Research at Austin Health, became aware of growing reports of multi-organ failure in COVID-19 cases they pivoted their efforts to investigate how their newly developed regime may be able to help patients with COVID-19.

“Like most people in the medical research community, we felt an obligation to help in whatever way we can. We thought, if there was chance that our treatment regime could also be used to keep COVID-19 patients alive then we had to try,” shared Dr Lankadeva.

The team worked swiftly to accelerate a treatment protocol for use in humans and in April 2020 the regime was approved to treat a critically ill COVID-19 patient in intensive care at Austin Health.

“In a short period of time, we saw significant improvement in a range of vital signs. The patient was taken off machine ventilation 12 days after starting treatment and discharged from hospital without any complications 22 days later,” explained Professor Bellomo.

The research has informed a pilot randomised controlled trial now underway at Austin Health.

“This important work also continues at the Florey where we are establishing the optimal dose and treatment duration so the regime can be used in intensive care units as a potential life-saving option for patients with sepsis,” said Professor May.