Department of Internal Medicine and Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Department of Immunology and Metabolism, Life and Medical Sciences Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
J Clin Invest. 2021 Jan 19;131(2). doi: 10.1172/JCI145545.
A number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine candidates have shown promising results, but substantial uncertainty remains regarding their effectiveness and global rollout. Boosting innate immunity with bacillus Calmette Guérin (BCG) or other live attenuated vaccines may also play a role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. BCG has long been known for its nonspecific beneficial effects that are most likely explained by epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming of innate immune cells, termed trained immunity. In this issue of the JCI, Rivas et al. add to these arguments by showing that BCG-vaccinated health care providers from a Los Angeles health care organization had lower rates of COVID-19 diagnoses and seropositivity compared with unvaccinated individuals. Prospective clinical trials are thus warranted to explore the effects of BCG vaccination in COVID-19. We posit that beyond COVID-19, vaccines such as BCG that elicit trained immunity may mitigate the impact of emerging pathogens in future pandemics.
新型冠状病毒病 2019(COVID-19)的一些疫苗候选者已经显示出了有希望的结果,但它们的有效性和全球推广仍存在很大的不确定性。用卡介苗(BCG)或其他减毒活疫苗增强先天免疫也可能在抗击 COVID-19 大流行中发挥作用。卡介苗长期以来因其非特异性的有益作用而闻名,这些作用很可能是通过先天免疫细胞的表观遗传和代谢重编程来解释的,这种现象被称为训练有素的免疫。在本期 JCI 中,Rivas 等人通过显示洛杉矶一家医疗机构的接种卡介苗的医护人员 COVID-19 诊断率和血清阳性率低于未接种者,为这些论点增添了新的证据。因此,有必要进行前瞻性临床试验来探索卡介苗接种在 COVID-19 中的作用。我们认为,除 COVID-19 之外,卡介苗等能够引发训练有素的免疫的疫苗可能会减轻未来大流行中新兴病原体的影响。