In a new study, researchers discovered that a hormone that has been pointed out as a treatment for obesity reduces the resistance to infection caused by bacteria and is a risk factor for sepsis.
The research was conducted by scientists from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) and elsewhere.
Sepsis is a potentially fatal illness that derives from a deregulated response of an organism to infection, leading to organ malfunction.
A recent study estimated that in 2017 sepsis affected 49 million people and 11 million people worldwide have died.
With the aim of expanding knowledge about this disease, the team examined whether the hormone known as GDF15 (growth and differentiation factor 15) could play a role in sepsis.
This hormone has the specificity of being widely studied by several laboratories and pharmaceuticals as a treatment for obesity.
They measured GDF15 levels in blood samples from patients with sepsis, under treatment in intensive care units, and compared these levels with the ones of healthy people and of patients diagnosed with appendicitis.
Results showed that sepsis patients had increased levels of GDF15 when compared with the other groups and that the high levels of the hormone were correlated with mortality.
The findings showed a critical effect of GDF15 on infection, which is important because this hormone increases in many common diseases, like obesity, and pulmonary and heart diseases.
The research proceeded with the study in mice that didn’t had the GDF15 gene. The results obtained revealed that mice survived better to a bacterial abdominal infection that resembles sepsis in human patients, suggesting that the hormone plays a role in sepsis.
Subsequently, they studied what was causing the increased survival rate in mice that didn’t had GDF15.
They noted that these mice were able to substantially recruit more white blood cells for the abdomen, especially neutrophils, better controlling locally the infection and preventing it from spreading rapidly to the rest of the body.
The team says when many pharmaceutical companies and groups are considering using GDF15 as a therapy for obesity, it’s important to remember that this method could increase the risk of severe infection, including sepsis.
Finding new therapeutic strategies to fight sepsis is essential for saving lives.
One author of the study is Luís Moita.
The study is published in PNAS.
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