The avid heme-binding protein, hemopexin (HPX, the apo-protein, i.e., heme-free), present in plasma, cerebral spinal fluid, and lymph, protects cells in infection and injury by shielding against oxidative damage from infection and inflammation partly via immune cell activation by toll-like receptors (Belcher et al., 2014) not only in blood disorders but also in other conditions (Ajayi et al., 2025; Li et al., 2025; Zeng et al., 2025) and especially in critical illness (Lin et al., 2015) including trauma and sepsis (Larsen et al., 2010). Here, HPX is linked to infection.