Cure of severe infections, sepsis, and septic shock with antimicrobial drugs is a challenge because morbidity and mortality in these conditions are essentially caused by improper immune response. We have tested the hypothesis that repeated reactivation of established memory to pathogens may reset unfavorable immune responses. We have chosen for this purpose a highly stringent mouse model of polymicrobial sepsis by cecum ligation and puncture. Five weeks after priming with a diverse Ag pool, high-grade sepsis was induced in C57BL/6j mice that was lethal in 24 h if left untreated. Antimicrobial drug (imipenem) alone rescued 9.7% of the animals from death, but >5-fold higher cure rate could be achieved by combining imipenem and two rechallenges with the Ag pool (p < 0.0001). Antigenic stimulation fine-tuned the immune response in sepsis by contracting the total CD3 + T cell compartment in the spleen and disengaging the hyperactivation state in the memory T subsets, most notably CD8 + T cells, while preserving the recovery of naive subsets. Quantitative proteomics/lipidomics analyses revealed that the combined treatment reverted the molecular signature of sepsis for cytokine storm, and deregulated inflammatory reaction and proapoptotic environment, as well as the lysophosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylcholine ratio. Our results showed the feasibility of resetting uncontrolled hyperinflammatory reactions into ordered hypoinflammatory responses by memory reactivation, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality in antibiotic-treated sepsis. This beneficial effect was not dependent on the generation of a pathogen-driven immune response itself but rather on the reactivation of memory to a diverse Ag pool that modulates the ongoing response.

The oil compatibility model is important for assessing the stability of crudes. The compatibility between maltenes and the corresponding asphaltenes, Asphs, can be assessed from the solubility parameters (Hildebrand and Hansen) of both components of the crude. Solvatochromism is the effect of the medium on the UV/vis spectra of substances (solvatochromic probes) that are sensitive to the properties of the medium, namely, its empirical (or overall) polarity, Lewis acidity and basicity, dipolarity, and polarizability. Therefore, the solubility and solvatochromic parameters of solvents should be related. We synthesized a novel solvatochromic probe (E-2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-(2-(1-hexylquinolin-1-ium-4-yl)­vinyl)­phenolate, HxQMBu 2 ) whose properties are convenient to study in nonpolar and polar solvents. The empirical solvent polarities measured with HxQMBu 2 in 38 solvents correlated linearly with the corresponding Hildebrand solubility parameters. Likewise, the solvent Lewis acidity/basicity, dipolarity, and polarizability correlated linearly with the corresponding Hansen solubility parameters. To test the equivalence of the two scales (solvatochromic and solubility parameters), we determined the solubility of Asphs in 28 solvents, pertaining to different chemical classes. The dependence of Asph solubility on three solvent descriptors (Lewis acidity/basicity, dipolarity, and polarizability) was tested. Our results indicated that alcohols and hydrocarbons are inefficient solvents; solvents of intermediate efficiency carry either a strongly dipolar group or polarized bonds. Aromatic and heterocyclic solvents are most efficient. The most relevant solvent descriptor (for the dissolution of Asphs) is its polarizability.

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