ArticleEClinicalMedicine2021
Parental Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine scars decrease infant mortality in the first six weeks of life: A retrospective cohort study.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neonatal Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccination to Prevent Early-Life Eczema: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Dermatitis : contact, atopic, occupational, drugPooled it
- Effects of Neonatal BCG-Japan Versus BCG-Russia Vaccination on Overall Mortality and Morbidity: Randomized Controlled Trial From Guinea-Bissau (BCGSTRAIN II).Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Trial
- The origin of non-specific effects of vaccines and the role of randomised clinical trials.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Review
- Interactions between Innate Immune Memory and the Central Nervous System.Neuroimmunomodulation · 2026Review
- Commentary: Beneficial non-specific effects of measles vaccine: Fact or fiction?Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Dad's legacy: Epigenetic reprogramming and paternal inflammatory memory in offspring health.Journal of internal medicine · 2025Review
- Scar among Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Vaccinated Children Presenting to an Immunisation Clinic at a Tertiary Hospital in Nepal: An Observational Study.JNMA; journal of the Nepal Medical Association · 2025Observational
- Trained immunity in diabetes: emerging targets for cardiovascular complications.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- The mark of success: The role of vaccine-induced skin scar formation for BCG and smallpox vaccine-associated clinical benefits.Seminars in immunopathology · 2024Review
- Trained immunity in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2023Review
- Beneficial non-specific effects of live vaccines against COVID-19 and other unrelated infections.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2023Review
- Pre-exposure to mRNA-LNP inhibits adaptive immune responses and alters innate immune fitness in an inheritable fashion.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Pre-exposure to mRNA-LNP inhibits adaptive immune responses and alters innate immune fitness in an inheritable fashion.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Are Bacille Calmette-Guérin Skin Reactions the Most Important Correlates of Bacille Calmette-Guérin's Specific and Nonspecific Effects?American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2022Article
- Reimagining an immunological dogma.Nature immunology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLive attenuated vaccines have been observed to have particularly beneficial effects for child survival when given in the presence of maternally transferred immunity (priming). We aimed to test this finding and furthermore explore the role of paternal priming.
methodsIn an exploratory, retrospective cohort study in 2017, parental Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) scars were assessed for infants from the Bandim Health Project (BHP) who had participated in a 2008-2013 trial of neonatal BCG vaccination. Parental scar effects on mortality were estimated from birth to 42 days, the age of the scheduled diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccination, in Cox proportional hazard models adjusted with Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting.
findingsFor 66% (510/772) of main trial infants that were still registered in the BHP area, at least one parent was located. BCG scar prevalence was 77% (353/461) among mothers and 63% (137/219) among fathers. In the first six weeks of life, maternal scars were associated with a mortality reduction of 60% (95%CI, 4% to 83%) and paternal scars with 49% (-68% to 84%). The maternal scar association was most beneficial among infants that had received BCG vaccination at birth (73% (-1% to 93%)). Although priming was less evident for paternal scars, having two parents with scars reduced mortality by 89% (13% to 99%) compared with either one or none of the parents having a scar.
interpretationParental BCG scars were associated with strongly increased early-life survival. These findings underline the importance of future studies into the subject of inherited non-specific immunity and parental priming.
fundingDanish National Research Foundation; European Research Council; Novo Nordisk Foundation; University of Southern Denmark.
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