脓毒症是由感染引起的难治性危重症。临床医生运用相关指标结合脓毒症患者生理状态和个人经验来监测病情并评估预后，有助于防止病情发展，降低病死率。为早期诊断和及时治疗并且改善患者预后，新的脓毒症诊治指南不断出现，然而早期识别重症患者及预测预后仍很困难。目前，一系列有关脓毒症生物标志物的基础和临床研究层出不穷，但仍缺乏敏感度和特异度均较高的标志物。近年来，将核酸用于评估脓毒症患者的病情和预测预后越来越受到研究者的关注。本文对细胞游离DNA（cf-DNA）、血浆线粒体DNA（mtDNA）、微小RNA（miRNA）和长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）在脓毒症病理过程中的作用及其与预后的关系进行综述，以期为更加深入地了解脓毒症发生发展机制，以及寻找评估脓毒症病情和预后的标志物提供新的思路。“,”Sepsis is a refractory critical illness caused by infection. Clinicians use relevant biological indicators, combined with the physiological status and personal experience of sepsis patients to monitor the condition and assess the prognosis, which helps in preventing the development of the condition and reduce the mortality. New guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis continue to emerge for early diagnosis and timely treatment and improve patient prognosis. However, it is still difficult to identify severe patients at an early stage and predict prognosis. At present, a series of basic and clinical studies on sepsis biomarkers are emerging, but no marker can achieve 100% sensitivity and specificity at the same time. In recent years, the use of nucleic acids to assess the condition of patients with sepsis and predict the prognosis has received increasing attention from researchers. This article reviews the role of cell-free DNA (cf-DNA), plasma mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), microRNA (miRNA), and long-chain noncoding RNA (lncRNA) in the pathological process of sepsis and its relationship with prognosis, with a view of providing a deeper understanding of the mechanism of sepsis occurrence and development, as well as finding new markers for evaluating the condition and prognosis of sepsis.