BCG vaccine may generate cross-reactive T cells against SARS-CoV-2: In silico analyses and a hypothesis

Abstract

The world is facing the rising emergency of SARS-CoV-2. The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a global public health and economic crisis.Recent epidemiological studies have shown that a possible association of BCG vaccination program with decreased COVID-19-related risks, suggesting that BCG may provide protection against COVID-19. Non-specific protection against viral infections is considered as a main mechanism of BCG and clinical trials to determine whether BCG vaccine can protect healthcare workers from the COVID-19 are currently underway. We hypothesized that BCG may carry similar T cell epitopes with SARS-CoV-2 and evaluated the hypothesis by utilizing publicly available database and computer algorithms predicting human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I-binding peptides. We foundthatBCG contains similar 9-amino acid sequences with SARS-CoV-2. These closely-related peptides had moderate to high binding affinity for multiple common HLA class I molecules, suggesting that cross-reactive T cells against SARS-CoV-2 could be generated by BCG vaccination.

Keywords: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG); COVID-19; Human leukocyte antigen (HLA); Pandemic; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).