Histone inhibition

1. A method of treating sepsis by inhibiting the cytotoxic activity of extracellular histones in a subject having sepsis, said method comprising administering an effective amount of a polyanion to said subject, wherein the polyanion does not have substantial anticoagulant activity; and

wherein the polyanion is a polyanionic oligosaccharide having the general structure (I):

A-(B) n -D  (I)

wherein A and B are each independently a cyclic monosaccharide or a cyclic deoxy monosaccharide;

D is a cyclic monosaccharide, a cyclic deoxy monosaccharide, a ring-opened monosaccharide, or a sugar alcohol;

n is an integer selected from 0, 1, and 2; and

wherein each of the cyclic monosaccharide, the cyclic deoxy monosaccharide, the ring-opened monosaccharide, or the sugar alcohol is independently optionally substituted with OSO 3 − , COO − , OPO 3 − , an optionally substituted alkyl, an optionally substituted alkenyl, an optionally substituted alkynyl, an optionally substituted aryl, or an optionally substituted aralkyl; and

wherein the polyanionic oligosaccharide includes at least two anionic substituents selected from the group consisting of OSO 3 − , COO − and OPO 3 − ; and

wherein the polyanion does not have substantial anticoagulant activity if the polyanion increases prothrombin time (PT), partial thromboplastin time (PTT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin clotting time (TCT), or activated clotting time (ACT) by 0 to 10% of the normal range.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the polyanion is substantially non-immunogenic.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the cyclic monosaccharide is selected from the group consisting of glucose, galactose, fructose, ribose, arabinose, xylose, lyxose, allose, altrose, mannose, gulose, idose, talose, ribulose, xylulose, psicose, sorbose, tagatose and sedoheptulose.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the cyclic monosaccharide is selected from the group consisting of glucose, galactose and fructose.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cyclic deoxy monosaccharide is selected from the group consisting of fucose, deoxyribose and rhamnose.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the sugar alcohol is selected from the group consisting of glycol, glycerol, erythritol, threitol, ribitol, arabitol, xylitol, sorbitol (glucitol), mannitol, dulcitol (galactitol), iditol and fucitol.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the ring-opened monosaccharide is selected from the group consisting of glucose, galactose, fructose, erythrose, threose, erythrulose, ribose, arabinose, xylose, lyxose, allose, altrose, mannose, gulose, idose, talose, ribulose, xylulose, psicose, sorbose, tagatose and sedoheptulose.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the polyanionic oligosaccharide has the general structure (I-a):

wherein each R 1 is independently selected from OSO 3 − , COO − , OPO 3 − , OH or H; and n is an integer between 0, 1, and 2; and wherein at least two of R 1 are selected from the group consisting of OSO 3 − , COO − , and OPO 3 − .

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the polyanionic oligosaccharide has the general structure (I-b):

where each R 1 is independently selected from OSO 3 − , COO − , OPO 3 − , OH or H; and n is an integer between 0, 1, and 2; and wherein at least two of R 1 are selected from the group consisting of OSO 3 − , COO − , and OPO 3 − .

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the polyanionic oligosaccharide is selected from the group consisting of:

wherein each R 2 is independently selected from OSO 3 − , COO − , OPO 3 − , OH or H; and wherein at least two of R 2 are selected from the group consisting of OSO 3 − , COO − , and OPO 3 − .

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the polyanionic oligosaccharide is selected from the group consisting of maltose sulfate, maltotriose sulfate, maltotetraose sulfate, panose sulfate, isomaltotriose sulfate, erlose sulfate, cellobiose sulfate and raffinose sulfate.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the polyanionic oligosaccharide is cellobiose sulfate.