Vascular Wall-Related Biomarkers in Sepsis: A Review of Current Evidence and a Critical Appraisal of Recent Patents

Sepsis is a leading cause of death in both developed and developing world that still represents one of the major challenges to biomedical research. Treatment of sepsis is largely based on antibiotics and supportive measures, so that early diagnosis of sepsis and of its end-organ complications, could potentially improve clinical outcomes. In the last two decades, there has been intensive research activity in the field of biomarker for sepsis. However, despite a few interesting positive results, incorporation of these tools into clinical practice has been slow, maybe due to limitations in their clinical impact in “real-life” patient care. In the last years, the concept of the endothelium as the most important target organ in sepsis gained momentum, leading to the search for new vascular wall-related biomarkers in sepsis. Promising results have been published in the last years, along with very recent patent filing activity. Here, we briefly review the rationale and available data on the use of vascular wall-related biomakers in sepsis. In addition, we discuss the trends in research & development activity in this area, by presenting a selected number of patents filed in the last 10 years to the area of vascularwall biomarkers in sepsis pointing areas for commercial development.