BCG Vaccine: A Powerful Tool for Health and Immunity
The BCG vaccine is a crucial tool in the fight against tuberculosis, but it also offers significant benefits for respiratory infections. A recent study from Radboud University Medical Center sheds light on how this vaccine works.
How the BCG Vaccine Works
The immune system has two main defenses: innate and adaptive. Innate immunity protects us from birth against many bacteria and viruses, while adaptive immunity builds protection against individual pathogens after an infection. Vaccines help protect against new pathogens without requiring an infection.
The BCG Vaccine and Trained Immunity
The BCG vaccine not only informs the adaptive immune system about tuberculosis bacteria but also boosts the overall vigilance of our body’s innate defenses. This is known as "trained immunity."
The Underlying Mechanism
Researchers led by Mihai Netea at Radboudumc are investigating how the BCG vaccine causes innate defenses to be more alert to infections from multiple microorganisms for a period of time. They found that innate immune cells change their metabolism and gene activity, leading to epigenetic changes that enhance trained immunity.
Lactate and Its Role
It is known that trained innate immune cells consume more glucose and produce additional lactate. The increased conversion of sugar fits the change required for trained immunity, but the role of lactate is unclear. Recent research suggests that lactate can bind to proteins regulating DNA packaging, called histones, and induce an epigenetic modification known as histone lactylation.
Lactate as a Molecular Trainer
The study found a link between lactate production and cytokine responses in innate immune cells. Lactate-mediated changes in DNA architecture activate certain genes involved in inflammatory processes in BCG-vaccinated individuals for at least three months. When lactate production is inhibited, trained immunity also decreases, indicating that lactate can indeed direct the innate immune system towards trained immunity.
Conclusion
The BCG vaccine not only protects against tuberculosis but also reduces infant mortality by reducing other infections. The study suggests that lactate plays a crucial role in this process, acting as a molecular trainer for our innate defenses.
More Information:
- Long-term histone lactylation connects metabolic and epigenetic rewiring in innate immune memory, Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.03.048
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- Radboud University
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Lactate mediates training of our innate defenses, research shows (2025, May 2). Retrieved 3 May 2025 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-lactate-innate-defenses.html
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