Title
Human milk secretory antibodies against attaching and effacing Escherichia coli antigens
Date Issued
01 May 2003
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Noguera-Obenza M.
Gomez H.
Guerrero M.
Herrera-Insua I.
Morrow A.
Ruiz-Palacios G.
Pickering L.
Guzman C.
Cleary T.
Universidad de Texas
Publisher(s)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Abstract
Secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) is a primary factor responsible for preventing attachment of enteropathogens to gut epithelium in breastfeeding infants. We compared the frequency of sIgA to major surface antigens of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in milk of 123 women from the United States and Mexico to determine whether regional differences existed in the frequency of antibodies to these surface antigens. In both groups of women, milk commonly has siga against various EHEC lipopolysaccharides, EspA, EspB, intimin, and less frequently against Shiga toxin. The study suggests that persons living in the U.S. are exposed to attaching/effacing enteropathogens more frequently than is generally assumed. The low frequency of antibodies to Stx1 (in 12% of Mexican and in 22% of U.S. samples) suggests that the rare appearance of hemolytic uremic syndrome in adults is not due to neutralization of toxin at the gut level. Only anti-EspA is found in most milk samples from both populations of women. EspA may represent a useful target for an immunization strategy to prevent EHEC disease in humans.
Start page
545
End page
551
Volume
9
Issue
5
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Medicina clínica
Ciencias médicas, Ciencias de la salud
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-0038077328
PubMed ID
Source
Emerging Infectious Diseases
ISSN of the container
10806040
Sponsor(s)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development - P01HD013021
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus