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British researchers have started testing the traditional tuberculosis vaccine, known as BCG, developed in 1921 to see if it can save lives in the fight against Covid, the BBC reports. In fact, several studies have been launched in Australia, South Africa, Europe, the United States, to test the hypothesis that this century-old vaccine could provide protection against the new coronavirus.
The vaccine was designed to protect against tuberculosis, but there is some evidence that it might protect against other infections as well.
Approximately 1,000 people will participate in a clinical trial at the University of Exeter.
Although many people, including the British, received BCG as children, it is believed that a new vaccine is needed to see benefits.
Vaccines are designed to train the immune system in a very well targeted way to provide long-term protection.
But this process can cause big changes in the immune system. This appears to amplify the response to other infections, and the researchers hope to offer benefits against the coronavirus.
Previous clinical trials have shown that the BCG vaccine reduced the mortality rate by 38% in newborns in Guinea-Bissau, greatly reducing cases of pneumonia and sepsis.
Studies in South Africa link the vaccine to a 73% reduction in nasal, throat and lung infections, and experiments in the Netherlands have shown that BCG has reduced the amount of yellow fever virus in the body.
“It could be of global significance,” Professor John Campbell of the University of Exeter School of Medicine told the BBC.
“While he does not believe that the ‘protection’ is specific to Covid, it has the potential to win many years for Covid vaccines to appear and perhaps other treatments to be developed.”
The UK clinical trial is part of the international Brace study, which is also taking place in Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Brazil, involving a total of 10,000 people.
It will focus on healthcare workers because they are more exposed to the coronavirus, so researchers will know more quickly if the vaccine is effective.
“There is a good theory that BCG could make you less exposed to a more severe form when you get COVID,” said Sam Hamilton, an Exeter doctor participating in the tests.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director, is one of The Lancet authors who says BCG has the potential to “fill the gap prior to the development of a Covid-specific vaccine.”
“It would be an important tool in the anti-COvid response and in the face of future pandemics,” the article reads.
However, BCG will not be a long-term solution.
In April, the WHO said no study had found evidence that BCG had protective power against the coronavirus, prompting scientists to be wary.
The big goal is to develop a specific vaccine against the coronavirus. Ten of these vaccines are in the final stages of clinical trials, including one developed by the University of Oxford.
Andrew Pollard of the Oxford Vaccine Group told the BBC that “the way most vaccines work is to create a very specific immune response against the virus that you are trying to prevent, but to create a good immune response, too there is a nonspecific one that enhances the immune response and changes the way the immune system may respond in the future. The problem we have today is that I can’t say what it could do with other vaccines to try to improve their responsiveness to coronavirus because we don’t have any evidence. ”
