Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers in breastmilk from convalescent and vaccinated mothers
Christine Bäuerl,
Joao Zulaica,
Luciana Rusu,
Alicia Rodríguez Moreno,
Francisco J. Pérez-Cano,
Carles Lerin,
Desirée Mena-Tudela,
Laia Aguilar-Camprubí,
Anna Parra-Llorca,
Cecilia Martínez-Costa,
Ron Geller,
Maria Carmen Collado
Affiliations
Christine Bäuerl
Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology- National Research Council (IATA-CSIC), 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
Joao Zulaica
Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), University of Valencia-CSIC, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
Luciana Rusu
Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), University of Valencia-CSIC, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
Alicia Rodríguez Moreno
Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), University of Valencia-CSIC, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
Francisco J. Pérez-Cano
Physiology Section, Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Science and Institute of Research in Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA), University of Barcelona (UB), 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Carles Lerin
Endocrinology department, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, 08950 Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Desirée Mena-Tudela
Department of Nursing, Nursing Research Group, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain
Laia Aguilar-Camprubí
LactApp Women Health, Barcelona, Spain
Anna Parra-Llorca
Health Research Institute La Fe, Neonatal Research Group, Spain and University and Polytechnic Hospital La Fe, Division of Neonatology, 46026 Valencia, Spain
Cecilia Martínez-Costa
Department of Pediatrics, Hospital Clínico Universitario, University of Valencia, Spain. Nutrition Research Group of INCLIVA, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Ron Geller
Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), University of Valencia-CSIC, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain; Corresponding author
Maria Carmen Collado
Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology- National Research Council (IATA-CSIC), 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain; Corresponding author
Summary: Breastmilk contains antibodies that could protect breastfed infants from infections. In this work, we examined if antibodies in breastmilk could neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in 84 breastmilk samples from women that were either vaccinated (Comirnaty, mRNA-1273, or ChAdOx1), infected with SARS-CoV-2, or both infected and vaccinated. The neutralization capacity of these sera was tested using pseudotyped vesicular stomatitis virus carrying either the Wuhan-Hu-1, Delta, or BA.1 Omicron spike proteins. We found that natural infection resulted in higher neutralizing titers and that neutralization correlated positively with levels of immunoglobulin A in breastmilk. In addition, significant differences in the capacity to produce neutralizing antibodies were observed between both mRNA-based vaccines and the adenovirus-vectored ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccine. Overall, our results indicate that breastmilk from naturally infected women or those vaccinated with mRNA-based vaccines contains SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies that could potentially provide protection to breastfed infants from infection.
