Characterization of SARS CoV-2 Antibodies in Breast Milk from 21 Women with Confirmed COVID-19 Infection

Abstract

One potential mechanism for protection from SARS-CoV-2 in infants and young children is through passive immunity via breast milk from a mother previously infected with the novel coronavirus. The primary objectives of this study were to establish the presence of SARS-CoV-2 specific IgA and IgG and to characterize the specific antigenic regions of SARS-CoV-2 proteins that were reactive with antibodies in breast milk from women with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Between March 2020 and September 2020, 21 women with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were enrolled into Mommys Milk at the University of California, San Diego. Women donated serial breast milk samples. Breast milk samples were used to probe a multi-coronavirus protein microarray containing full-length proteins and variable length overlapping fragments of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), nucleocapsid (N), and open reading frame (ORF) proteins. The breast milk samples contained IgA reactive with a variety of SARS-CoV-2 antigens. The most IgA-reactive SARS-CoV-2 proteins were N (42.9% of women responded to ≥1 N fragment) and S proteins (23.9% of women responded to ≥1 fragment of S1 or S2). Overall, individual COVID-19 cases had diverse and unique milk IgA profiles over the course of follow-up since onset of SARS-CoV-2 symptoms.

Vitamin K in COVID-19—Potential Anti-COVID-19 Properties of Fermented Milk Fortified with Bee Honey as a Natural Source of Vitamin K and Probiotics

“…Others suggest that drinking microfiltered raw immune milk or colostrum from cows vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 may facilitate immunoglobulin transfer and passive immunity-protecting humans against SARS-CoV-2 [104]. This notion may be scientifically sound given that research has identified SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the breast milk of women with confirmed COVID-19 [105]. Most of these antibodies (88%) are spike-specific of high titer (50%), and in vitro, they expressed neutralizing effects against spike-pseudotyped VSV (IC50 range, 2.39-89.4 ug/mL) [106].…”