Immunometabolism: Another Road to Sepsis and Its Therapeutic Targeting

Sepsis is a major health problem all over the world. Despite its existence since the time of Hippocrates (470 BC), sepsis is still a serious medical problem for physicians working in both pediatric and adult intensive care units. The most current US FDA-approved drug called recombinant human activated protein C or Drotrecogin-α is also failed in clinical trials and showed similar effects as placebo. The epidemiological data and studies have indicated sepsis as a major socioeconomic burden all over the world. Advances in immunology and genomic medicine have established different immunological mechanisms as major regulators of the pathogenesis of the sepsis. These immunological mechanisms come into action upon activation of several components of the immune system including innate and adaptive immunity. The activation of these immune cells in response to the pathogens or pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) responsible for the onset of sepsis is regulated by the metabolic stage of the immune cells called immunometabolism. An alternation in the immunometabolism is responsible for the generation of dysregulated immune response during sepsis and plays a very important role in the process. Thus, it becomes vital to understand the immunometabolic reprograming during sepsis to design future target-based therapeutics depending on the severity. The current review is designed to highlight the importance of immune response and associated immunometabolism during sepsis and its targeting as a future therapeutic approach.