{"doi":"10.1101/2022.04.18.488640","title":"BCG vaccination of Diversity Outbred mice induces cross-reactive antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein","abstract":"Abstract The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, the only vaccine against tuberculosis, induces cross-protection against pathogens unrelated to Mycobacterium , including viruses. Epidemiological studies have identified potential benefits of BCG vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection. While BCG’s heterologous effects have been widely attributable to trained immunity , we hypothesized BCG vaccination could induce cross-reactive antibodies against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-Hu-1. The concentration of IgG reactive to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from the sera of BCG-vaccinated, Diversity Outbred (DO) mice and C57BL/6J inbred mice was measured using ELISA. Sera from 10/15 BCG-vaccinated DO mice possessed more IgG reactive to recombinant spike protein than sera from BCG-vaccinated C57BL/6J mice and unvaccinated DO mice. Amino acid sequences common to BCG cell wall/membrane proteins and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were identified as potential antigen candidates for future study. These results imply a humoral mechanism, influenced by genotype, by which BCG vaccination could confer immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Graphic Abstract","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2022,"id":300009,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9565,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":446865,"name":"Sherry L. Kurtz","orcid":"0000-0002-2281-8984","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":596232,"name":"Karen L. Elkins","orcid":"0000-0001-8779-8657","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":98613,"name":"Harrison Specht","orcid":"0000-0003-3151-6803","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":283984,"name":"Gillian Beamer","orcid":"0000-0001-6782-4424","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":665083,"name":"Aubrey G. Specht","orcid":"0000-0003-0561-563X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":17,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:49.412501Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}