AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at Texas A&M University are hopeful a vaccine used to fight tuberculosis and bladder cancer will prove effective in mitigating the effects of COVID-19. Depending on the results of a trial, it could prevent infection altogether.
This week, scientists led by researchers at Texas A&M are recruiting front-line health care workers to test the vaccine, known as BCG. Developed in the 1920s, the vaccine historically has been used to fight tuberculosis in developing countries and to fight early-stage bladder cancer in the U.S. Since the vaccine has been in use for nearly a century, researchers are able to immediately test its effectiveness against the virus instead of waiting for additional trials and approval.
The vaccine is not a cure for the coronavirus, and its effectiveness in preventing infection won’t be known until the trial gets underway. But scientists are optimistic it could reduce the number of severe cases and hospitalizations. Because the body fights bladder cancer in a similar way to how it fights coronavirus, researchers expect the treatment will lessen the severity of an infection and could eventually allow for a more effective management of the pandemic.
Jeffrey Cirillo, a professor in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, is the principal investigator on the trial, which includes researchers from Harvard’s School of Public Health, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Cirillo and his colleagues will recruit 1,800 health care workers in their respective areas in the country, half of which will be given the BCG vaccine. Cirillo said the vaccine has proven very effective in reducing the severity and mortality rates of other viral diseases like the flu and yellow fever.
Around the world, scientists are racing to create a specific vaccine for the coronavirus. Researchers at Oxford University seem to be at the forefront of such a treatment, saying this week that their vaccine proved effective in trials on monkeys. But a specific treatment may be years away.
“We’re hoping to buy time until a specific vaccine is available, which may take an additional two to three years,” Cirillo said. “Since it’s not a specific vaccine, what it can do is reduce the overall severity of the disease. That prevents our ICU units from being overtaxed, prevents people from dying. And if we can reduce the number of overall cases, we can better contract trace and we can better contain this overall.”
The vaccine works by training peoples’ immune systems to respond to the virus in a specific way. Right now, many immune systems respond in a negative way, triggering lung distress and fevers. If the vaccine can train the immune system to attack the virus more effectively, it could save lives.
Cirillo said he has been working around the clock to get the trial going. Last week, Texas A&M University Chancellor $2.5 million to expedite the trial.
“It’s not acceptable for us to waste time,” Cirillo said. “People are dying, and if I can even save one life through the work I do, that’s really the reason I’m driven.”
The trial is set to last six months, but researchers could start seeing important results in as early as two months, at which point they would look to policy makers to weigh in on which populations could be treated first. BCG is already manufactured by Merck pharmaceuticals, which distribute it for bladder cancer treatment. Cirillo said one dosage of BCG for cancer treatment could provide 500 anti-coronavirus doses.
Cirillo wants people to be cautious when it comes to vaccine potential, but said his trial could play a role in a safe return to normality.
“If we are able to get positive data from this, it will allow us to open up more quickly,” he said.
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