Intravesical Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Vaccine Affects Cognition.

ABSTRACT

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a valuable assessment of the patient's awareness of time and place. We show that bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) significantly affects MoCA testing when administered by the intravesical route. MoCA scores were lower with increasing age and higher in more formally educated individuals. Patients receiving BCG tended to maintain their MoCA scores, whereas almost half the control cases tended to show reduced scores. This benefit is supported by reduced pre-amyloid biomarkers in BCG-injected healthy volunteers and a favorable effect on neuronal dendritic development in animal models. Our results suggest that BCG has a beneficial impact on the cognitive status of older individuals.