Bovine colostrum as a biologic in clinical medicine: A review – Part II: Clinical studies

Abstract

Bo vine colostrum as a bi o logic in clin i cal med i cine: A re view-Part II Ab stract. The value of bo vine colostrum as a bi o logic in med i cine is doc u mented in clin i cal tri als and sup ported by rel a tively large databases con tain ing case re ports and an ec dotal find ings. The main ac tions in clude an an ti bac te rial ef fect and mod u la tion of the im mune re sponse. The abil ity of bo vine colos trum con cen trates (BCC are polyvalent bo vine colostrum con cen trates pro duced from the colos trums of sev eral 100 cows) to neu tral ize lipopolysaccharides, i.e. endo tox ins aris ing from Gram-neg a tive bac te rial pathogens and to in hibit enterogenic endotoxemia in an i mal mod els as shown in the last re view to have its coun ter part in pa tient ther apy. Clin ical tri als with BCC pro vide ev i dence that oral ap pli ca tion re duces the in flux of LPS from the gut and this ap pears to be a ma jor mech anism un der ly ing its ther a peu tic ef fect in patients at risk for Gram-neg a tive sep tic shock; data from two well-con trolled clin i cal stud ies with a to tal of 100 sur gi cal pa tients have shown that the in hi bi tion of in tes ti nal LPS absorp tion mea sured af ter the ap pli ca tion of BCC not only re duced the LPS lev els in the pe riph eral blood but also in flam ma tory param e ters like IL-6 and CRP were found to be di min ished. The usual daily dose of the com mer cially avail able BCC prep a ra tion, Lactobin ® (LC1) is 10-20 g daily, but higher doses can be used in the ma jor ity of pa tients be cause of the low in ci dence of in tol er ance prob lems. In chronic di ar rhea in volv ing severe forms of sec ond ary immunodeficiencies, pa tients re ceiv ing LC1 were disease-free for about 4 weeks but the re sponse may be lower in pa tients with AIDS. BCC is ef fec tive in in fants with hem or rhagic di ar rhea caused by in fec tions with enterohemorrhagic E. coli and re duces the like li hood of the disease pro gress ing to a hemolytic uremic syndrome. The safety of newer BCC prod ucts ob tained from BSE-free re gions seems now be yond con ten tion. In the case of LC1, which was used as a com mer cial di etary food stuff in Ger many un til 1992 and tested in three Phase 1 and 5 clin i cal stud ies (two tri als in pa tients with sec ond ary immunodeficiencies, one in sur gi cal pa tients with gas tro in tes ti nal dis orders, one in pa tients un der go ing open heart sur gery and one in pe di at ric pa tients with EHEC in fec tions), there were no cases of BSE-as so ci ated dis ease such as the new variant of Creutz feldt-Jakob dis ease. Side ef fects of clin i cal rel e vance are lim ited to pos si ble in tol er ance to lac tose and sen si tiv ity to milk pro teins as these are also pres ent in many com monly used food stuffs. Im por tant syn ergis tic ac tions with con ven tional drug ther apies have been ob served with BCC in clud ing a re duc tion in LPS plasma lev els in pa tients with Gram-neg a tive bac te rial in fec tions treated with bac te ri cidal an ti bi ot ics...

Potential benefits of colostrum in gastrointestinal diseases

“…Some authors have reported lactose intolerance, nausea, flatulence, transient diarrhoea and unspecified abdominal discomfort as possible side effects while other studies specifically reported the absence of side effects (83,128,129,165,137,143,189,190). However, further research is required in order to confirm these data, and, more importantly, to evaluate the effects of colostrum when used for a prolonged periods of time and during pregnancy.…”

“…According to the current state of knowledge, colostrum appears to be safe and no contraindications are observed even when administered at high concentrations both in humans and animals (189,190). Some authors have reported lactose intolerance, nausea, flatulence, transient diarrhoea and unspecified abdominal discomfort as possible side effects while other studies specifically reported the absence of side effects (83,128,129,165,137,143,189,190).…”

Broad Neutralizing Antibodies to HIV Env and Other Complex Viral Antigens from Vaccinated Cows

“…For instance, it has been suggested that consumption of immune milk from vaccinated cows is a potential means to control outbreaks of avian influenza, SARS, and other human respiratory diseases [25]. There are several studies evaluating passive immune protection via development and use of immune milk products [26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…In general, quantitative and qualitative batch-to-batch variation is the another potential obstacle with the use of polyclonal antibodies from animals [104]. Though passive immunization with the bovine polyclonal antibodies can prevent or control infection [26][27][28][29][30][31]40], a general problem for polyclonal antibodies is that a large portion of stimulated antibodies will target non-neutralizing epitopes and titer of specific antibodies may be low [42]. However, one strategy to cope this problem may be the production of the monoclonal BrNAbs targeting conserved epitopes among different subtypes of a virus.…”

Impact of bioactive substances on the gastrointestinal tract and performance of weaned piglets: a review

“…In addition, it must be considered that besides IgG, SDP contains growth factors, cytokines and other biologically active compounds that may also contribute to its positive effects on performance. Finally, SDP may reduce both the influx of LPS from the gut and LPS plasma levels, as shown with bovine colostrum in patients with Gram-negative bacterial infections (Struff and Sprotte, 2008).…”