Since sepsis seems to be the main cause of the Pope’s death, it got me thinking about toxins.
Is there any serious research going on with regards to bacterial antitoxins?
I think Jim Henson died of similar causes, and he was obviously much younger.
And I almost died of this when I was 7 (due to peritonitis).
Is there anything especially difficult in finding antitoxins?
Sorry if this is such an ignorant question but I figure I must be missing something.
Moderator:
Could the thread title be changed to “Why are there no bacterial antitoxins?”
I realize the original seems a bit foolish sounding.
Many thanks!
-the OP
Some common vaccines are weakened toxins. Ever had a tetanus shot? Toxoid vaccines train your immune system to attack toxins before they cause major harm.
Most (if not all) antitoxins or antivenoms are made using anitbodies. When you are treated for a snake bite, say, the antivenom they treat you with is simply antibodies taken from an animal which has been injected with low doses of the venom. So it’s not some magical “antidote” molecule that somehow undoes the venom/toxin on its own. Rather the antibodies attach to the venom/toxin molecule and this alerts your immune system to take care of the problem.
Antitoxin treatment is limited for a few reasons. First, it’s only really useful in diseases where the toxin is the major cause of the damage of the disease. Diphtheria, Botulism, and Tetanus are all examples. Second, these treatments are not without risk. Undesirable immune responses can easily result from the injection of animal proteins/antibodies into your system. E.G. Serum Sickness.
With any treatment, the Doctor must weigh the potential benefits with the risks.
In the case of Sepsis, I suspect a treatment that simply fights the toxins wouldn’t be effective, as the bacteria would still be present in the system. For one thing, there would come a point where you would need more antitoxin than could be tolerated. Not to mention that each strain of bacteria capable of causing sepsis might produce a different toxin, making the antitoxin administration a bit more tricky.
According to this site the treatment for sepsis includes broad spectrum antibiotics and monitoring in the ICU. If your immune system is already overwhelmed by such an infection, an antitoxin consisting of antibodies (which activate an immune response) wouldn’t be expected to produce much of an effect.
Not a Doctor, BTW
(Which is why I am not dispensing medical advice)
There is plenty of work to develop antitoxins for bacterial infections. This area will become very important when antibiotics finally fail us.
First, a little bio background. Toxins do their damage by targeting some normal host function. So (in general) there are two ways to detox a toxin: destroy the toxin or block it’s interaction with the host.
Destroying the toxin is usually done at NPC said, by antibodies which identify it for clearance from the body. Generating the antibodies can be done either by vaccination or passive transfer. Vaccination requires forethought, so it’s out for treatment once you’re sick. Transferring antibodies generated in another animal (by vaccination) works fine. That’s how snake anti-venom works. However, generating those in large enough quantities to be useful for common bacterial diseases is a manufacturing nightmare.
Another problem is that toxins can be very bad antigens, meaning it’s hard to generate effective antibodies against them. Your body may just ignore them (little antibody produced) or it may produce tons of antibody that doesn’t help the immune response develop.
The other option is to block the toxin’s function. This works fine in theory, but in practice you are also affecting a normal host function. So, in the end, these types of treatments tend to have very high (often unacceptably so) side effects.