Intravenous administration of BCG protects mice against lethal SARS-CoV-2 challenge.

ABSTRACT: In addition to providing partial protection against pediatric tuberculosis, vaccination with bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has been reported to confer nonspecific resistance to unrelated pulmonary pathogens, a phenomenon attributed to the induction of long-lasting alterations within the myeloid cell compartment. Here, we demonstrate that intravenous, but not subcutaneous, inoculation of BCG protects human-ACE2 transgenic mice against lethal challenge with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2) and results in reduced viral loads in non-transgenic animals infected with an α variant. The observed increase in host resistance was associated with reductions in SCV2-induced tissue pathology, inflammatory cell recruitment, and cytokine production that multivariate analysis revealed as only partially related to diminis

SUBMITTER: Hilligan KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8669500 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature