Protection
by milk immunoglobulin concentrate against oral challenge with enterotoxigenic
Escherichia coli
CO Tacket, G Losonsky, H Link, Y Hoang, P Guesry, H Hilpert, and MM
Levine
Abstract
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is a common cause of traveler's diarrhea.
Prophylaxis against traveler's diarrhea has been associated with side
effects from bismuth subsalicylate and the development of resistance
to antimicrobial agents. We undertook a double-blind controlled trial
in which a bovine milk immunoglobulin concentrate with high titers
of antibodies against enterotoxigenic E. coli was used as prophylaxis
against E. coli challenge in volunteers. Lyophilized milk immunoglobulins
were prepared from the colostrum of cows immunized with several enterotoxigenic
E. coli serotypes and fimbria types, E. coli heat-labile enterotoxin,
and cholera toxin. As a control, an immunoglobulin concentrate with
no anti-E. coli activity was prepared. Ten volunteers received buffered
immunoglobulin concentrate against enterotoxigenic E. coli, and 10
received the control immunoglobulin concentrate, dissolved in water,
three times a day. No side effects were observed. On the third day
of immunoglobulin prophylaxis, the volunteers were given 10(9) colony-forming
units of enterotoxigenic E. coli H10407 (O78:H11). This strain produces
colonization factor antigen I and heat-labile and heat-stable enterotoxins.
None of the 10 volunteers receiving the immunoglobulin concentrate
against E. coli had diarrhea, but 9 of the 10 controls did (P less
than 0.0001). All volunteers excreted E. coli H10407. We conclude
from these preliminary results that milk immunoglobulin concentrate
may be an effective prophylaxis against traveler's diarrhea.
Source Information
Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine,
Baltimore.
The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 127 No. 3 March 1997, pp. 418-426
Copyright ?1997 by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences
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