Abstract

Sepsis accounts for a major cause of morbidity and mortality in surgical and medical ICU. The current pharmacological management still hovers around early management of patients with antibiotics yet fails to adequately personalise the treatment on patient characteristics. Even today the severity of sepsis is assessed by a variety of biochemical and clinical markers that further helps to take a glimpse of the on-going metabolic structure of the disease and patient in-toto. Despite a huge list of proven and experimental markers, the ideal biomarker for sepsis remains elusive till today. Though a genetic basis of stress response has been previously formulated the study of the role of RNA in sepsis is still in its infancy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by affecting the target mRNAs. A recent development has shed some light on these miRNAs and their role amid different pathologic conditions like sepsis. Specific miRNAs that has been a target for research are miR-25, miR- 133a, miR146, miR-150, and miR-150. While few of these have found to correlate with short-term and long-term prognosis, others have been investigated to have diagnostic value as well. In this article, we try to understand recent developments in this relatively new model of sepsis and its potential to be an ideal biomarker for sepsis in the future.