Covid, study: Beneficial effects from diphtheria and pertussis vaccine

By Cristiano Antonino Last updated Oct 19, 2021

The diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine may have beneficial effects by protecting against Sars-CoV-2 and Covid-19 disease

The study was carried out, using the immune system simulator called Universal immune system simulator (Uiss), by the ‘Combine’ research group, directed by Professor Francesco Pappalardo, of the Department of Drug and Health Sciences at the University of Catania, and was recently published in the leading journal in the field of computational biomedicine ‘Briefings in Bioinformatics’.

The research, entitled ‘A multi-step and multi-scale bioinformatic protocol to investigate potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine targets’, shows that, as Pappalardo explains, ‘a population that has recently had diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccination, for example a paediatric or pre-adolescent population, has cross-protection against SARS-CoV-2 that could limit its severity’.

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Study on the beneficial effects of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine

“Independent clinical studies have confirmed the prediction of the in silico trial platform,” says Pappalardo, who carried out the research together with Giulia Russo, Valentina Di Salvatore, Giuseppe Sgroi, Giuseppe Alessandro Parasiliti Palumbo from the University of Catania and Pedro Reche from the University of Madrid.

The opportunity to echo and resonate the importance of combining bioinformatics software solutions in healthcare, especially in this pandemic situation, lays the foundation for the sustainability of the ‘3 R’s’ principle, ‘replace, reduce, refine’ in vaccine development and optimally predicting vaccine efficacy.

Technological advances in computer modelling and simulation are enriching the discovery, development, evaluation and monitoring for better prevention, diagnosis, treatment and generation of scientific evidence for specific therapeutic strategies,’ he adds.

The combined use of molecular modelling and multiscale simulations in the development and regulatory assessment of therapeutic drug interventions is making a difference in better predicting the efficacy and safety of new vaccines in general”.

The project is funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme.