Precision medicine for the treatment of sepsis: recent advances and future prospects

Abstract

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Sepsis is the leading cause of mortality in critically ill patients and, despite the improvements in patient care, in-hospital mortality remains unchanged. The role of the dysregulated immune response in the pathophysiology of sepsis, coupled with the diversity of phenotypes it encompasses, highlights the need for a precision medicine approach.Areas covered: This paper is a narrative review of the current evidence on precision medicine in sepsis. The main recent advances are in the field of Omics-based technologies and big data analytics.Expert opinion: Different clusters of patients based on gene-expression profiles have been identified and showed potential diagnostic and prognostic utility. Prediction models based on electronic medical records (EMR) and developed with artificial intelligence algorithms are being applied in clinical practice. Integration of Omics-based technologies and EMR data through artificial intelligence algorithms provides the landscape to identify endotypes and biomarkers predicting response to therapies. This opens the door to a theranostic approach in sepsis and to an improvement in outcomes.