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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Sepsis or septic shock, the overreaction of the inflammation and coagulation responses to infection, is the leading cause of death in non-coronary intensive care unit patients in the US. It's not the infection that gets you, it's your overaggressive immune system unleashing so-called "cytokine storms" implicated in a variety of diseases. Examining the network of cytokine interactions illustrates why anti-mediator drugs have been generally ineffective. A more effective approach may be to try and reduce interactions by dampening many signals at once by filtering the cytokines out of the blood directly (think dialysis). This talk will argue that feedback on an out of control nonlinear dynamical system is easier to understand than its normal healthy state and apply filtration to a toy model of immune response."