Ramesh Natarajan, Bernard J Fisher, Aamer A Syed and Alpha A Fowler
Objective: Severe sepsis is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the critically ill with no reliably effective treatments. The goal of this study was to determine whether intravenous ascorbic acid impacted novel biomarkers in sepsis.
Methods: This is a retrospective study of a phase I, randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled safety trial of intravenous ascorbic acid in severe sepsis. In the safety trial, 24 patients were randomized to receive full ICU standard of care support plus intravenous ascorbic acid (50 or 200 mg/kg/24h) for 4 days or placebo. Novel biomarkers of sepsis such as circulating cell free DNA (cf-DNA), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), endogenous antimicrobial proteins (alpha-4-defensin [α4D] and bactericidal permeability interacting protein [BPI]) and the red cell distribution width (RDW) were measured.
Results: Cf-DNA values were higher in non-survivors at baseline and remained elevated for 96 hours. MtDNA levels increased in the placebo group, but declined in the treatment groups without reaching statistical significance. RDW increased significantly only in the placebo group, while expression of the antimicrobial proteins increased significantly only in the treatment groups.
Conclusion: Ascorbic acid infusion may improve sepsis outcomes by reducing cf- and mtDNA levels while augmenting endogenous antimicrobial proteins and preserving RDW.
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