Briefly, this pilot clinical trial will evaluate preliminary safety and efficacy of the study drug (Smoflipid) at elevating cholesterol levels (primary outcome) in patients with sepsis and moderate organ dysfunction and will also evaluate measures of organ dysfunction, mortality, and biological activity (secondary outcomes).

Sepsis is a life-threatening disease for which there are no effective treatments. It results from metabolic and immunologic derangements that lead to organ dysfunction, shock and sometimes death. Both "good" (high density lipoprotein, HDL) and "bad" (low density lipoprotein, LDL) cholesterol should be protective against sepsis by helping to clear bacterial toxins from the blood stream and by providing a fuel for endogenous corticosteroids, part of the body's protective stress-response in shock. However, for partially unknown reasons, cholesterol levels drop to critically low levels in early sepsis, leaving the body unable to protect itself against sepsis via these mechanisms. Currently, lipid emulsions are available that are FDA approved for intravenous nutrition in critically ill patients (including sepsis) and may be capable of elevating serum cholesterol levels. This Phase II randomized pilot clinical trial, proposes to assess the following in a cohort of patients with early sepsis (first 24 hours): 1) safety and tolerability of the proposed lipid injectable emulsion (Smoflipid) and any adverse effects, 2) the drugs ability to optimally elevate cholesterol at 48 hours, and 3) preliminary measures of biological activity and clinical outcomes.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. age > 18,
2. primary diagnosis of sepsis and within 24 hours of sepsis recognition and treated with institutional sepsis algorithm,
3. SOFA score ≥ 4,
4. screening total cholesterol ≤ 100 mg/dL or HDL-C + LDL-C ≤ 70 mg/dL

Exclusion Criteria:

1. total bilirubin > 2 mg/dL,
2. serum albumin < 1.5 mg/dL,
3. hypersensitivity to fish, egg, soybean, or peanut protein, or to any of the active ingredients or excipients,
4. severe hyperlipidemia or severe disorders of lipid metabolism with serum triglycerides > 400 mg/dL,
5. alternative/confounding diagnosis causing shock or critical illness (e.g., myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolus, massive hemorrhage, trauma),
6. significant traumatic brain injury (evidence of neurologic injury on CT scan and a GCS <8),
7. refractory shock (likely death within 12 hours),
8. established Do Not Resuscitate status or advanced directives restricting aggressive care or treating physician deems aggressive care unsuitable,
9. anticipated requirement for surgery that would interfere with drug infusion,
10. severe primary blood coagulation disorder,
11. acute pancreatitis accompanied by hyperlipidemia,
12. acute thromboembolic disease,
13. uncontrollable source of sepsis (e.g., irreversible disease state such as unresectable dead bowel),
14. severe immunocompromised state (e.g. subject has neutropenia receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy with absolute neutrophil count < 500/ul or expected to decline to < 500/uL within the next 3 days),
15. pregnancy or lactation
16. already receiving intravenous lipid formulations (e.g., TPN, propofol) will be excluded from the study as lipid infusion will interfere with interpretation of the study results.
17. Child Pugh Class B/C liver disease patients or liver transplant recipient
18. Patients on, or anticipated to be placed on, ECMO within 48 hours of enrollment

10 patients were enrolled in the Phase I trial. One patient was withdrawn leaving nine patients for analysis. 49 patients were enrolled in the Phase II trial. Two patients were withdrawn leaving 47 patients who completed the study and were included in the analysis.

Adverse event data were collected from enrollment through 28 days after enrollment.

Adverse events were any unfavorable and unintended sign, symptom, or disease temporally associated with the use of Smoflipid in this study. Adverse events were only considered dose-limiting toxicities if they met the predefined study protocol criteria. None of the these were classified as dose limiting or serious.

For the Phase I trial, the main limitation was the small sample of patients; however, this is not uncommon among phase I trials. The Phase II was also a small clinical trial of 47 patients, planned for 24 patients in each arm. Strict enrollment criteria limited enrollment in this study and the exclusion of patients with elevated bilirubin given the drug's hepatic metabolism and risk of complications limited the number of patients who could enroll.

Because this is a pilot study, and because the lipid emulsion appears white and was visible to the treatment team, the study was not blinded. Data abstractors were blinded to the treatment effect. As the treatment effects are objective measurements (lipid levels, SOFA score, etc.) the likelihood of bias is low.