PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eman Ali Toraih
AU  - Jessica Ashraf Sedhom
AU  - Titilope Modupe Dokunmu
AU  - Mohammad Hosny Hussein
AU  - Emmanuelle ML Ruiz
AU  - Kunnimalaiyaan Muthusamy
AU  - Mourad Zerfaoui
AU  - Emad Kandil
TI  - Hidden in plain sight: The effects of BCG vaccination in COVID-19 pandemic
AID  - 10.1101/2020.06.09.142760
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.06.09.142760
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/12/2020.06.09.142760.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/12/2020.06.09.142760.full
AB  - To investigate the relationship between BCG vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 by bioinformatic approach. Two datasets for Sars-CoV-2 infection group and BCG-vaccinated group were downloaded. Differentially Expressed Genes were identified. Gene ontology and pathways were functionally enriched, and networking was constructed in NetworkAnalyst. Lastly, correlation between post-BCG vaccination and COVID-19 transcriptome signatures were established. A total of 161 DEGs (113 upregulated DEGs and 48 downregulated genes) were identified in the Sars-CoV-2 group. In the pathway enrichment analysis, cross-reference of upregulated KEGG pathways in Sars-CoV-2 with downregulated counterparts in the BCG-vaccinated group, resulted in the intersection of 45 common pathways, accounting for 86.5% of SARS-CoV-2 upregulated pathways. Of these intersecting pathways, a vast majority were immune and inflammatory pathways with top significance in IL-17, TNF, NOD-like receptors, and NF-κB signaling pathways. Our data suggests BCG-vaccination may incur a protective role in COVID-19 patients until a targeted vaccine is developed.Supplementary Materials (https://drive.google.com/open?id=15Na738L282XNaQAJUh0cZf1WoG9jJfzJ)Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.