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Nature Medicine 10, 1161 - 1162 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nm1104-1161

Can nicotine treat sepsis?

Michael A Matthay1 & Lorraine B Ware2

  1. Michael A. Matthay is at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0130, USA. e-mail: mmatt@itsa.ucsf.edu
  2. Lorraine B. Ware is in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2650, USA.


The acetylcholine receptor modulates interactions between the nervous system and the immune system. An acetylcholine receptor agonist, nicotine, is now harnessed to dampen inflammation and reduce mortality in a mouse model of sepsis (pages 1216–1221).


Sepsis affects approximately 750,000 people and accounts for over 200,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. Despite treatment with appropriate antibiotics, patients with sepsis often develop multiple organ failure, including shock, resulting from an overwhelming inflammatory response.

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