Sepsis is the leading cause of death in intensive care units and results from a deleterious systemic host response to
infection. Although initially perceived as potentially deleterious,
catalytic antibodies have been proposed to participate in removal of metabolic wastes and protection against
infection. Here we show that the presence in plasma of
IgG endowed with
serine protease-like hydrolytic activity strongly correlates with survival from
sepsis. Variances of catalytic rates of
IgG were greater in the case of patients with
severe sepsis than healthy donors (P < 0.001), indicating that
sepsis is associated with alterations in plasma levels of hydrolytic
IgG. The catalytic rates of
IgG from patients who survived were significantly greater than those of
IgG from deceased patients (P < 0.05). The cumulative rate of survival was higher among patients exhibiting high rates of
IgG-mediated hydrolysis as compared with patients with low hydrolytic rates (P < 0.05). An inverse correlation was also observed between the markers of severity of
disseminated intravascular coagulation and rates of hydrolysis of patients'
IgG. Furthermore,
IgG from three surviving patients hydrolyzed
factor VIII, one of which also hydrolyzed
factor IX, suggesting that, in some patients, catalytic
IgG may participate in the control of disseminated microvascular
thrombosis. Our observations provide the first evidence that hydrolytic
antibodies might play a role in recovery from a disease.