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Journal Article Review Ppublish 19 citations

PubMed: 35597119 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2022.108870

BCG Vaccination: A potential tool against COVID-19 and COVID-19-like Black Swan incidents.

Int Immunopharmacol 108:108870

Authors: Wenping Gong, Yingqing Mao, Yuexi Li, Yong Qi

Affiliations

  • Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Key Laboratory/Beijing Key Laboratory of New Techniques of Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment, Senior Department of Tuberculosis, The 8(th) Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100091, China.
  • Huadong Research Institute for Medicine and Biotechniques, Nanjing 210002, Jiangsu Province, China.
  • Huadong Research Institute for Medicine and Biotechniques, Nanjing 210002, Jiangsu Province, China.
  • Huadong Research Institute for Medicine and Biotechniques, Nanjing 210002, Jiangsu Province, China.

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and its variants have brought unprecedented impacts to the global public health system, politics, economy, and other fields. Although more than ten COVID-19 specific vaccines have been approved for emergency use, COVID-19 prevention and control still face many challenges. Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only authorized vaccine used to fight against tuberculosis (TB), it has been hypothesized that BCG may prevent and control COVID-19 based on BCG-induced nonspecific immune responses. Herein, we summarized: 1) The nonspecific protection effects of BCG, such as prophylactic protection effects of BCG on nonmycobacterial infections, immunotherapy effects of BCG vaccine, and enhancement effect of BCG vaccine on unrelated vaccines; 2) Recent evidence of BCG's efficacy against SARS-COV-2 infection from ecological studies, analytical analyses, clinical trials, and animal studies; 3) Three possible mechanisms of BCG vaccine and their effects on COVID-19 control including heterologous immunity, trained immunity, and anti-inflammatory effect. We hope that this review will encourage more scientists to investigate further BCG induced non-specific immune responses and explore their mechanisms, which could be a potential tool for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19-like "Black Swan" events to reduce the impacts of infectious disease outbreaks on public health, politics, and economy.

MeSH

Coronavirus, Sars-Cov-2, Disease Outbreaks, Vaccines, Public Health, Vaccination, Covid-19, Immunity, Infections

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