Experimental treatments for mitochondrial dysfunction in sepsis: A narrative review

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to infection. Sepsis, which can lead to severe sepsis, septic shock, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, is an important cause of mortality. Pathogenesis is extremely complex. In recent years, cell hypoxia caused by mitochondrial dysfunction has become a hot research field. Sepsis damages the structure and function of mitochondria, conversely, mitochondrial dysfunction aggravated sepsis. The treatment of sepsis lacks effective specific drugs. The aim of this paper is to undertake a narrative review of the current experimental treatment for mitochondrial dysfunction in sepsis. The search was conducted in PubMed databases and Web of Science databases from 1950 to January 2014. A total of 1,090 references were retrieved by the search, of which 121 researches met all the inclusion criteria were included. Articles on the relationship between sepsis and mitochondria, and drugs used for mitochondrial dysfunction in sepsis were reviewed retrospectively. The drugs were divided into four categories: (1) Drug related to mitochondrial matrix and respiratory chain, (2) drugs of mitochondrial antioxidant and free radical scavengers, (3) drugs related to mitochondrial membrane stability, (4) hormone therapy for septic mitochondria. In animal experiments, many drugs show good results. However, clinical research lacks. In future studies, the urgent need is to develop promising drugs in clinical trials.