Type I interferon (IFN) alpha/beta is critical for host defense. During endotoxicosis or highly lethal bacterial infections where systemic inflammation predominates, mice deficient in IFN-alpha/beta receptor (IFNAR) display decreased systemic inflammation and improved outcome. However, human sepsis mortality often occurs during a prolonged period of immunosuppression and not from exaggerated in...

Research on Ebola virus (EBOV) has focused on preventing and controlling the infection using vaccines and antiviral therapies. Given the long-term challenge of the current epidemic and the likelihood of future outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic fevers caused by the filoviruses, including EBOV and Marburg virus, efforts should also focus on developing therapies to reduce the deadly complications of ...

BACKGROUND Sepsis is a major healthcare problem and current estimates suggest that the incidence of sepsis is approximately 750,000 annually. Sepsis is caused by an inability of the immune system to eliminate invading pathogens. It was recently proposed that endogenous mediators produced during sepsis can contribute to the immune dysfunction that is observed in sepsis. Endocannabinoids that are...

BACKGROUND Neonatal sepsis is a blood stream infection which is seen in the first month of life of the neonate. Bacterial profile of neonatal septicemia is constantly changing thus, current knowledge on the patterns of bacterial isolates, its antibiotic resistance profile, and associated factors, are essential to design and implement appropriate interventions. Therefore, the aim of this study w...

Susceptibility to, and outcome from, sepsis in children is highly variable due in part to genetic variation in genes coding for components of the innate immune response. This review article will discuss evidence for the influence of host genetic variability on the susceptibility to, and outcome from, sepsis in children and adults. Polymorphisms in genes coding for proteins involved in the recog...

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to bacterial infection. The therapeutic options for treating sepsis are limited. Impaired neutrophil recruitment into the infection site is directly associated with severe sepsis, but the precise mechanism is unclear. Here, we show that Mincle plays a key role in neutrophil migration and resistance during polymicrobial sepsis. Mincle-deficient mice exh...