Programmed Cell Death-1/Programmed Death-Ligand 1 Blockade Improves Survival of Animals with Sepsis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECT: To investigate effects of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) related blockade in sepsis animals. METHODS: Two reviewers independently searched electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library up to February 2017. Strict literature retrieval and data extraction were performed to extract relevant data. Data analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software and Stata version 12.0. And relative risks (RRs) for survival rate were calculated. A fixed-effect model was selected to pool and a forest plot was used to display RRs. RESULTS: Four studies involving 394 animals were finally included. Nine control groups are used to pool. A fixed-effect model was applied to estimate a pooled RR of 2.19 (95% CI: 1.74–2.76), indicating that PD-1 related blockade increased survival rate in sepsis animals. CONCLUSION: We concluded that PD-1 related blockade can improve survival of animals with sepsis. But robust standardized clinical experiments for sepsis patients are highly desirable.