Perhaps the world will get rid of covid in the near future. Scientists from Australia are working on a drug based on the tuberculosis vaccine and the coronavirus vaccine.
As shown by the results of the experiments, the transgenic mice developed absolute immunity to Covid-19. It took just one injection to get one hundred percent protection.
The effect of this cocktail, dubbed BCG: CoVac, has not yet been tested in humans. Clinical trials are coming.
The version that a 100-year-old vaccine can become a means of combating coronavirus appeared quite a long time ago. The researchers suggested that the differences in mortality from covid may be associated with BCG vaccination, which is widely used in some countries, and in others – selectively, mainly in risk groups. But hopes were not justified.
A group of Australian scientists from the University of Sydney made the drug in one bottle, combining BCG with the spike protein of the coronavirus. The results of the experiment are published in the journal NPJ Vaccines (part of the Nature group).
Since no cases of infection of ordinary mice with Covid-19 have yet been detected, their transgenic counterparts with the human ACE2 receptor became the subjects. Laboratory rodents received one injection, and after 21 days they were inoculated with the coronavirus. All experimental mice demonstrated 100% invulnerability, their airways were intact by infection, and the number of antibodies increased 100 times! But in the control group, all unvaccinated animals died six days after infection.
It is interesting that the experimental administration of other drugs, in particular BCG, antibodies were formed, but in a very modest amount. And the BCG: CoVac cocktail, on the other hand, provided the highest level of protection.
However, the immune system of mice is still very different from that of humans, so it is still premature to talk about the effectiveness of the combined vaccine for humans. Only clinical trials will show this …
Commentary by Anna Toptygina, immunologist, doctor of medical sciences:
– The BCG vaccine was registered exactly 100 years ago, in 1921. It is quite peculiar, because, firstly, it is a living microbe, and secondly, it is not mycobacterium tuberculosis, known as Koch’s bacillus, but its relative, bovine mycobacterium. The strain was bred by microbiologist Kalmet and veterinarian Guerin. It has been shown that a mixture of mycobacterium BCG and any protein that was added to it produced a very severe boost in the immune response. In our century, it has been proved that the BCG vaccine, acting through Toll-like receptors, namely the receptors of innate immunity that recognize the enemy – viruses, bacteria, for several months after administration, creates the effect of the so-called “trained” innate immunity. I think that Australian scientists are trying to exploit these properties. The innate immunity is quite effective against viruses. The new coronavirus infection fights the innate immune system, inhibits it, tries to escape from it. People who are asymptomatic, even without the formation of antibodies, give a positive result on PCR testing. This is the action of innate immunity.
– Does BCG vaccine give lifelong immunity or not?
– BCG protects against tuberculosis in a very peculiar way: as long as these bacteria remain alive, the immune system works. If they are killed, the immunity disappears. We check this using the Mantoux test. Such long-term memory, as, say, for measles, is not formed when the immunity acquired after an illness persists for life.
“Let’s say clinical trials prove the Australian vaccine is effective in humans. Can it be reused as a booster?
– The BCG vaccine is administered three times: first to newborns, then to children at 7 years old and adolescents at 14 years old. They don’t do it anymore. It should be noted that the BCG vaccine itself is not easy. It is difficult for young children to tolerate, and an even more powerful response occurs in adults. It is not just that a scar is obtained from it, there is an inflammatory process, crusts are formed, there are discharge from the injection site. This is not some water. Therefore, I do not really believe that it will go to the broad masses. People are now wary of even a slight increase in temperature or a feeling of weakness after vaccination, and if there is purulent discharge from the vaccination site? It seems to me that this is not a very good option.
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