Sepsis develops when the chemicals the immune system releases into the bloodstream to fight an infection cause inflammation throughout the entire body instead. Severe cases of sepsis can lead to septic shock, which is a medical emergency. Some symptoms of sepsis are a fever above 101ºF (38ºC) or a temperature below 96.8ºF (36ºC), heart rate higher than 90 beats per minute, breathing rate higher than 20 breaths per minute, probable or confirmed infection. Severe sepsis can lead to septic shock that causes organ failure and death. Sepsis kills more people around the world than cancer. 1.2 Sepsis affects 49 million people worldwide each year, with a high mortality rate of 11 million deaths. 1 Sepsis is a life-threatening disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues in response to an infection. Even in the least serious type of the disease, the in-hospital mortality rate reaches 10%. Personalized medicine in sepsis, involves making an early and precise microbiologic diagnosis, evaluating the host immune response signature, and assessing individual response to treatment in order to tailor therapy to each patient’s particular needs.

Characterizing sepsis endotypes and further risk stratification using biomarkers derived from omics (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) technologies is an equally important step towards the introduction of precision medicine in sepsis as making an accurate microbiologic diagnosis early. Septic patients have a variety of immune response profiles that are both static and active, necessitating the identification of the biologic pathways that are responsible for the dysregulation of the host response at any given time. Omics-based biomarkers, once validated, can help define clinical subgroups of patients with similar biologic characteristics as well as inform prognosis. A panel of biomarkers, rather than one individual biomarker, is more likely to provide a snapshot of the culprit-altered biologic pathway. Additionally, in sepsis, NGS technology has been used to determine both host and pathogen profiles from a single sample. Person patient response after targeted therapy aimed at restoring a particular biologic pathway may also be assessed using biomarkers. While genomic and transcriptomic biomarkers have been established, their high costs and long Nevertheless, designing interventions, which are specific to subgroups sharing a common pathophysiologic profile, would have a better chance of achieving a favorable outcome in sepsis and relevant biomarkers should be validated in clinical trials. turnaround times have kept them from being used in daily practice.

The first steps toward precision medicine in sepsis have been taken, but we are still a long way from full implementation. Precision cancer therapies target a particular molecular signature, resulting in better outcomes. Endotypes in sepsis, on the other hand, are affected by both host and pathogen influences, as well as their particular interactions. As a result, optimizing the timeliness and accuracy of diagnostic tools, as well as analyzing complex and dynamic data using advanced computational methods, will be needed in order to design a targeted therapeutic approach.

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