The Bacillus Calmette'Guerin vaccine, often given to infants in countries with high rates of tuberculosis, is also being tested as a treatment for diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other conditions.Credit: Nikolay Doycinov/AFP via Getty A century-old vaccine against tuberculosis helps to regulate blood sugar in people with certain types of diabetes, such that they can reduce their insulin use, according to the results of a phase II clinical trial. The finding adds support for the once-controversial hypothesis that vaccines made with living but weakened pathogens can protect against both their target disease and off-target ones. The trial vaccine ' called the Bacillus Calmette'Guerin (BCG) vaccine, after the two researchers who developed it ' is derived from a weakened form of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis in cows. In the 1920s, studies found that the shot reduced mortality in children by protecting them from not just tuberculosis, but other deadly infections, too....
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