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Fighting the flu: The surprising power of a century-old vaccine for tuberculosis

Published: 22 February 2024

As Canada’s flu season collides with record strep A cases and ongoing COVID-19 concerns, a new study is shedding light on our understanding of respiratory immune responses. Scholars from the Research Institute of the 鶹AV Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have discovered a surprising facet about a century-old vaccine for tuberculosis, Bacillus Calmette Guérin (BCG). The study, published in the journal , uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that extends the vaccine’s shield to combat influenza A virus—the most prevalent flu strain.

“The immune interactions involved here can ‘train’ the lungs, which are frequently exposed to infectious agents in the environment. If we can map out the protective immune pathways involved in the lungs, this will revolutionize our conceptual and clinical approaches in developing vaccines against infections, including emergent respiratory viruses,” explains lead author Maziar Divangahi, a pulmonary immunologist, a senior scientist at the RI-MUHC, and a Professor of Medicine at 鶹AV. The discovery paves the way for future studies to assess whether BCG could be used to prevent other emergent viruses. Notably, research on the vaccine’s protection against COVID-19 has had promising results.

About the study

by Kim Tran et al. was published in Nature Immunology.

About 鶹AV 

Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, 鶹AV is Canada’s top ranked medical doctoral university. 鶹AV is consistently ranked as one of the top universities, both nationally and internationally. It is a world-renowned institution of higher learning with research activities spanning three campuses, 12 faculties, 14 professional schools, 300 programs of study and over 39,000 students, including more than 10,400 graduate students. 鶹AV attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 12,000 international students making up 30% of the student body. Over half of 鶹AV students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 20% of our students who say French is their mother tongue. 

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