The efficacy, safety and unsefulness of murine anti-endotoxin monoclonal IgM antibody “E5, an intravenous dose of 2mg/kg” were evaluated in 88 patients with suspected Gram-negative sepsis from 37 institutes in Japan. Out of these, 74 patients were evaluable for the efficacy, 85 for safety and 75 for clinical usefulness. In assessing the efficacy, the patients were divided into 3 groups based on the plasma endotoxin levels (Endospecy with new PCA treatment of plasma): H group with a level of above 9.8 pg/ml and M group with a level of 3.0-9.8 pg/ml and L group with a level of below 3.0pg/ml.
1. The efficacy rates as assessed following administration of E5 were 73.1% in the H group, 70.4% in the M group and 38.1% in the L group being higher in the groups with significantly high plasma endotoxin levels.
2. In both the H and M groups in whom plasma endotoxin levels were significantly high, the majority of the patients showed rapid reduction of the levels after administration of E5.
3. In all groups, improvement in body temperature, pulse rate, blood TNF-α and blood IL-6 was observed after treatment with E5. In the H and M groups with an endotoxin level of 3.0pg/ml, improvement in platelet count as well as in CRP was noted. The H group showed also improvement in WBC.
4. Improvement in the shock score was noted in all the groups but was more outstanding in the H and M groups in the early stage of treatment.
5. Side effects were seen in 5 (5.9%) of 85 patients and all thought to be allergic in symptoms such as rash, itching, fever and flare.
6. The reaction to the prick test performed before administration of E5 was negative in all these 5 patients. For 3 of the 5 patients, anti-E5 IgE antibody was measured. In all of them, the IgE levels were higher than those of healthy controls. Also, in 47.6% of patients, an elevation of anti-ES IgG antibody was noted two weeks after the administration.
7. Clinical laboratory abnormalities were observed in 3 (3.5%) of 85 patients. They were an elevation of S-GOT · S-GPT and lowering of BUN, increased Al-p and decreased CH
50, increased neutrophilia (%) and were all slight in the degree of the changes.
8. The clinical usefulness of E5 was evaluated for 75 patients. The usefulness rates involving “useful” and “very useful” were 69.2% in the H group, 66.7% in the M group and 36.4% in the L group, with the rate being significantly higher in the H and M groups than L group.
9. The blood levels following one-hour intravenous infusion of E5 at a dose of 2mg/kg were obtained by a simulation curve at the end of infusion, 24, 48 and 72 hours later with values of 18.05, 5.26, 1.53 and 0.45μg/ml, respectively. This indicates that a drug concentration of 0.2μg/ml or more which was found to inhibit LPS activity in an in-vitro test was maintained as long as 87.65 hours.
From the foregoing results, an intravenous dose of 2mg/kg E5 was shown to effective by lowering plasma endotoxin level and improving clinical symptoms of patients with endotoxemia due to sepsis. The finding led us to conclude that if ES is used for a patient with such disease profile is mentioned above in consideration of its “Risk-Benefit-Balance”, its therapeutic usefulness will be much expected.
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