Tuberculosis Drugs vs. COVID? | | Harvard Medical School

This article is from Harvard Medical School Continuous compensation of COVID-19.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital publish new paper cell report medicine We demonstrate the protective potential of multiple doses of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) tuberculosis vaccine against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of patients with type 1 diabetes conducted at the start of the pandemic, before a COVID-specific vaccine was available, researchers had 12.5 percent of placebo-treated individuals and BCG-treated Discovered 1% of individuals. Individuals met the criteria for confirmed COVID-19 and had a vaccine efficacy of 92%.

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The BCG-vaccinated group also showed protection against other infections. This includes fewer symptoms, lower severity, and fewer infectious events per patient. No BCG-related systemic adverse events occurred.

The broad protection of BCG suggests that: Current SARS-CoV-2 variantswhich may offer protection against new SARS-CoV-2 variants and other pathogens.

Researchers say the results spur a larger study of the efficacy of the BCG vaccine in people with type 1 diabetes, believed to be one of the most vulnerable groups at severe COVID-19 risk. I hope to call

tuberculosis strain

BCG vaccine is a non-toxic strain of tuberculosis. mycobacterium bovis, Historically administered to prevent tuberculosis, it is the most widely administered vaccine in the history of medicine since its introduction in 1921.

Considered to be very safe, BCG is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines and is administered to approximately 100 million children annually worldwide.

BCG is also one of the most affordable medicines, with a single dose costing less than $1 in many parts of the world.

“Studies have shown that adults with type 1 diabetes diagnosed with COVID-19 are at increased risk of severe disease. “We found that severe symptoms from -19 and other infections were limited.” Dennis FaustmanAssociate Professor and Director of Medicine, HMS Immunobiology Laboratory General Mass.

“Unlike the antigen-specific vaccines currently used to prevent COVID-19, BCG’s mechanism of action is not limited to specific viruses or infections,” she said.

Participants in the COVID trial had previously enrolled in a clinical trial testing the efficacy of the BCG vaccine against type 1 diabetes. had been vaccinated.

“This data set is unique and exciting because all patients had received multiple doses of BCG prior to the start of the epidemic. Prior to the study, they had no known exposure to tuberculosis or previous BCG vaccination. This eliminates a major confounding factor that has limited other trials,” said Hazel, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was not officially involved in the study. Docker said.

“These results support the idea that BCG takes time to show clinical efficacy, but its effects can be very long-lasting and long-lasting,” said Dockrell. .

The 144 adults with type 1 diabetes (96 treated with BGC, 48 placebo) analyzed in the COVID-19 trial were part of an ongoing phase 2b clinical trial with established type 1 diabetes. are testing BCG as a treatment for adults with The patient was followed for 15 months for COVID-19-related outcomes.

COVID-19 trial results included COVID-19 infection rate, COVID-19-related symptomsreduction in overall infections symptoms and Presence and intensity of SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels.

Type 1 diabetes results were not blinded as part of this study and will be blinded upon completion of the study in 2023.

Adapted from a Mass General news release.