BCG Vaccine in Reducing Morbidity and Mortality in Elderly Individuals in COVID-19 Hotspots

Recruitment area: Under the Lockdown 2.0, the country has been classified into three key zones-Red, Orange and Green (26). These zones will support the cluster containment plan announced by the government, while opening up the rest of the places. Green Zone: Places which have so far not reported even a single COVID-19 positive case will be declared as Green Zone under Government's new plan. This means nearly 400+ districts of India might qualify to be tagged as Green Zone. Orange Zone: Orange zone may see opening of limited public transport and also allow exemptions for essential services personnel and farming and harvest activity for the ongoing season. Orange zone will have less than 15 cases of COVID-19. Red Zone: A district or cluster declared as a red zone, will see severe restrictions with zero or no activity allowed. Typical understanding is that any place with more than 15 COVID-19 positive cases can be declared as a red zone. Investigators will include the Red \& Orange zones of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan and other interested states for this study. Recruitment methods: Participants would be recruited through (i) information presented in community organizations, hospitals, colleges and other institutions to the general public. (ii) From a line list prepared of adults above the age of 60 years from Census data for the hotspot areas. (iii) Participants will also be recruited by use of an advertisement +/- registration form formally approved by the ethics committee(s) and distributed or posted in the 1. newspapers or other literature for circulation. 2. Via presentations (e.g. presentations at lectures or invited seminars). (iv) Community Advisory Board will be created for this study and help of the members of this board will be taken for recruitment to the study Interested individuals will be provided detailed information about the study and the requirements for participation will be provided. Participants will be given brochure about the study and patient information sheet. They will have the opportunity to ask any questions they might have and to talk to a study team member. If they are still interested and willing to participate, they will be invited to participate in screening evaluation procedure. Study Procedures: Participants meeting inclusion criteria will be recruited in a nonrandomized manner after obtaining their consent to participate to the study. An information document that clearly indicates the risks and the benefits associated with the participation to the study will be given to each patient before signing consent. Regarding participant identification, a study number will be assigned sequentially to included participants, according to the range of patient numbers allocated to each study center. Participants will be seen at baseline for enrolment, initial data collection (a detailed medical history including h/o previous BCG vaccination and evidence of BCG vaccination scar to be noted), Chest x-ray PA view to rule out PTB, blood sampling for antibody testing (2 ml) and PCR (nasopharyngeal swab). Eligible participants will be administered BCG at day 0. Participants will be followed up weekly by phone for first 2 months and asked to complete a standardized questionnaire. Month 1, 3 \& 6 will be visit in person while Month 2 \& 5 will be completed over phone. Participants would be tested for COVID antibodies at month 3 and month 6. If positive, nasal/throat swab would be collected for PCR testing for confirmation. Participants will also be asked to call the study staff in the event of any adverse reactions or illness. Participants will thereafter be followed up monthly for six months. Participants will be given a diary card (paper), with instructions to fill in case of adverse events, along with the emergency 24 hour telephone number to contact the on-call study physician if needed. They will be instructed on how to self-assess the severity of these AEs. There will also be space on the diary card to self-document unsolicited AEs, and whether medication was taken to relieve the symptoms. In addition to blood, nasopharyngeal swabs will be collected from all participants. qRT- PCR test will be considered to reconfirm the qRT-PCR positive / negative status at enrolment. In a subset of this cohort (15% of the sample), consenting for immunological substudy, 20 ml of blood will be collected at baseline for immunological and biomarker analysis. They will also provide additional blood samples (20 ml) at 1, 3 and 6 months post vaccination for immunological and biomarker studies. Blood collection: Investigators will collect 2 ml of venous blood after obtaining consent from participants. Investigators will collect the specimen using a syringe following all the safety precautions and transfer the specimen to serum separator tubes. After completion of sample collection from all eligible participants, the specimen will be transported to the nearest District Public Health Laboratory (DPHL)/Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory Network (VRDLN) laboratory in cold chain. In the laboratory, serum will be separated and used for rapid antibody testing. Detection of SARS-CoV 2 specific antibodies will be performed using a ICMR validated SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test. The Lateral Flow-based immune-chromatographic test detects SARS-CoV 2 specific antibodies (IgG/IgM) with a turnaround time of 15-20 mins. Presence of coloured bands at Test and Control lines will indicate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (positive result) in the specimen. Absence of coloured band in Test line will indicate the absence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (negative result). Immunology analysis: The primary variables of interest of immune response to vaccines will be the percentage of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that express IFN-γ, TNF, IL-2, IL-17, IL-22, CD107a, Perforin, Granzyme B and Granulysin alone or in combination in response to stimulation with SARS-Cov-2 and BCG antigens. Secondary variables of interest would be the response of trained monocytes and other innate immune cells including NK cells, NKT cells, gd T cells and MAIT cells. Response will be measured by flow cytometry in the intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) assay. Blood collected for immunological studies will be utilized as follows: PBMC isolation and storage for immunology studies described above; Whole blood in Lithium Heparin microtainer for absolute blood cell counting by flow cytometry (deconvolution for transcriptomics) and for Interferon Gamma Release Assays; plasma and serum for soluble immune mediators by ELISA and for total and SARS-Cov2 specific IgG, IgM and IgA ELISA. Diagnostic tests: PCR: Molecular diagnosis of SARS-Cov2 will be done by using RT-PCR kits according the ICMR guidelines. Serology: Antibody IgG/IgM Covid-19 rapid test kit will be used. Chest x-ray along with symptom screening: To rule out tuberculosis Subgroup Analysis 1. The primary analysis will be performed using the whole cohort 2. A stratified analysis will be undertaken for various age groups and by risk groups based on co-morbidity. This will allow vaccine effectiveness to be assess in more homogeneous subgroups and to check for effect of modification across strata 3. Stratified analysis will also be done for various geographic distribution and occupation 4. Immunological analysis will be carried out in a subset of individuals (n=200)