tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Virology
. 2021 Oct 28;565:73-81.
doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2021.10.003. Online ahead of print.
BCG vaccination and the risk of COVID 19: A possible correlation
Sara M Ahmed[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mohamed A Nasr[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shimaa E Elshenawy[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Alaa E Hussein[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ahmed H El-Betar[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Rania Hassan Mohamed[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Nagwa El-Badri[SUP] 4 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is currently used to prevent tuberculosis infection. The vaccine was found to enhance resistance to certain types of infection including positive sense RNA viruses. The current COVID-19 pandemic is caused by positive sense RNA, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A higher mortality rate of COVID-19 patients was reported in countries where BCG vaccination is not routinely administered, when compared to the vaccinated ones. We hypothesized that BCG vaccine may control SARS-CoV2 infection via modulating the monocyte immune response. We analyzed GSE104149 dataset to investigate whether human monocytes of BCG-vaccinated individuals acquire resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Differentially expressed genes obtained from the dataset were used to determine enriched pathways, biological processes, and molecular functions for monocytes post BCG vaccination. Our data show that BCG vaccine promotes a more effective immune response of monocytes against SARS-CoV2, but probably not sufficient to prevent the infection.
Keywords: BCG; Bacillus Calmette–Guérin; COVID-19; Gene expression; Macrophages; Monocytes; SARS-CoV2.
. 2021 Oct 28;565:73-81.
doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2021.10.003. Online ahead of print.
BCG vaccination and the risk of COVID 19: A possible correlation
Sara M Ahmed[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mohamed A Nasr[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shimaa E Elshenawy[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Alaa E Hussein[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ahmed H El-Betar[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Rania Hassan Mohamed[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Nagwa El-Badri[SUP] 4 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34742127
- PMCID: PMC8552046
- DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2021.10.003
Abstract
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is currently used to prevent tuberculosis infection. The vaccine was found to enhance resistance to certain types of infection including positive sense RNA viruses. The current COVID-19 pandemic is caused by positive sense RNA, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A higher mortality rate of COVID-19 patients was reported in countries where BCG vaccination is not routinely administered, when compared to the vaccinated ones. We hypothesized that BCG vaccine may control SARS-CoV2 infection via modulating the monocyte immune response. We analyzed GSE104149 dataset to investigate whether human monocytes of BCG-vaccinated individuals acquire resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Differentially expressed genes obtained from the dataset were used to determine enriched pathways, biological processes, and molecular functions for monocytes post BCG vaccination. Our data show that BCG vaccine promotes a more effective immune response of monocytes against SARS-CoV2, but probably not sufficient to prevent the infection.
Keywords: BCG; Bacillus Calmette–Guérin; COVID-19; Gene expression; Macrophages; Monocytes; SARS-CoV2.