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. 2020 Nov 10;38(48):7581-7584.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.10.013. Epub 2020 Oct 9.

COVID-19 vaccine and boosted immunity: Nothing ad interim to do?

Luca Roncati  1 , Maria Vadalà  2 , Veronica Corazzari  3 , Beniamino Palmieri  2
Affiliations

COVID-19 vaccine and boosted immunity: Nothing ad interim to do?

Luca Roncati et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Today, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global public health emergency and vaccination measures to counter its diffusion are deemed necessary. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of the disease, unleashes a T-helper 2 immune response in those patients requiring intensive care. Here, we illustrate the immunological mechanism to train the immune system towards a more effective and less symptomatic T-helper 1 immune response, to be exploited against SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG); Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19); Corynebacterium parvum (C. parvum); Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes); Hyaluronic acid; Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes); Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); T helper 1 (T(h)1); T helper 2 (T(h)2); Vaccine; cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44).

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Illustrative clinical photographs taken by Prof. Palmieri before and after C. parvum vaccination: herpes zoster of the scalp pre-injection (A) and 48 h post-vaccine (B); herpes labialis before the injection (C) and after 24 h from the treatment (D); genital herpes at the time of subdermal injection (E) and 24 h post-vaccination (F).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Illustrative scheme of our vaccination rationale: following SARS-CoV-2 entry (point 1), the immune system is forced to mount a Th2 response in those patients requiring intensive care, at the expense of a more effective and less symptomatic Th1 response, compromised by the viral load (point 2). Through C. parvum or BCG vaccine (point 3), it is theoretically possible to train and calibrate the immune system towards a Th1 response (point 4), able to prevent COVID-19 or to keep the disease under control in a paucisymptomatic or asymptomatic way thanks to activated reticuloendothelial system, NK, Tc and dendritic cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms

Supplementary concepts