Skip to main content
News Icon

Publication

Tuberculosis vaccine strengthens immune system

Study by the Universities of Bonn and Nijmegen explains how BCG vaccination reduces susceptibility to infections

A tuberculosis vaccine developed 100 years ago also makes vaccinated persons less susceptible to other infections. While this effect has been recognized for a long time, it is not known what causes it. Together with colleagues from Australia and Denmark, researchers from Radboud university medical center the universities of Nijmegen and Bonn have now presented a possible answer to this question. Their results are also interesting against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic: several studies are currently testing the use of the vaccine in preventing severe disease progression in populations at risk such as hospital staff and elderly individuals. The study is published in the journal "Cell Host & Microbe".


Publication

Branko Cirovic, L. Charlotte J. de Bree, Laszlo Groh, Bas A. Blok, Joyce Chan, Walter J.F.M. van der Velden, M.E.J. Bremmers, Reinout van Crevel, Kristian Händler, Simone Picelli, Jonas Schulte-Schrepping, Kathrin Klee, Marije Oosting, Valerie A.C.M. Koeken, Jakko van Ingen, Yang Li, Christine S. Benn, Joachim L. Schultze, Leo A.B. Joosten, Nigel Curtis, Mihai G. Netea und Andreas Schlitzer: BCG vaccination in humans elicits trained immunity via the hematopoietic progenitor compartment; Cell Host & Microbe; DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.05.014

Related news

Nora Möhn

Publication

New Findings on Immunotherapy for a Rare Brain Infection

—Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare but very serious brain disease. It is caused by the reactivation of the widespread JC virus when the immune system is severely weakened. There is currently no targeted antiviral therapy available, which is why new treatment approaches are urgently needed. In recent years, so-called immune checkpoint inhibitors have been increasingly used; these “unlock” the immune system and reactivate the body’s own immune cells. The results were recently published in the journal JAMA Neurology.
View entry
Die künstlerische Abbildung zeigt Seeigel der Art Arbacia punctulata, die Spermien (weiße Wolke) und Eier (orangefarbene Wolke) ins Wasser abgeben. Von den Eiern freigesetzte Pheromone steuern die Synchronität des Laichens.

Publication

What Makes Sea Urchin and Salmon Sperm Swim

—A recent study by the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences and the University of Bonn shows that pH plays a crucial role in sperm motility in sea urchins and salmon. A rise in pH activates the enzyme soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC), which produces the messenger molecule cAMP and thereby regulates sperm movement. This mechanism may be widespread in many marine invertebrates and fish. The findings have now been published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
View entry
3 Wissenschaftler

Publication

Immune cells remember their location

—A new AI-based method reconstructs spatial information about where immune cells were originally located in an organ, even after these cells have been removed from the tissue and analyzed individually. To accomplish this, Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn use the transcriptome, i.e., the entirety of all messenger RNA transcripts produced by genes within a cell at a given time. The work has now been published in the journal Advanced Science and introduces the new MERLIN algorithm.
View entry

Back to the news overview