New research is asking whether COVID-9 antibodies found in breastmilk can protect babies from the virus.
Traces of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected in human milk, albeit in small amounts, and a pressing question is whether babies can catch the virus through their mother’s milk. In a recent review of 48 studies, authors found that twelve out of 183 women tested positive for viral DNA in their breastmilk.
The review also found that among this group of twelve women, six of their infants tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. However, research on this issue is ongoing and it is not clear if indeed babies can pick up the virus from their mother’s milk, as it is hard to exclude the possibility that babies picked up the virus from contact with their mother.
Another important question is whether infants can get some protection from their mum, through maternal production of antibodies against the virus, which may be present in the milk.
A team from the University of Western Australia (UWA) is currently tackling this issue, by analysing 500 milk samples from 25 COVID-19 infected and 25 non-infected mothers.
“We started being interested at looking at protective effects of human milk against COVID-19 in March 2020 as there was a lot of anxiety regarding the safety of breastfeeding during COVID-19 pandemics,” says Prof Valerie Verhasselt, from The University of Western Australia, who is leading the research.
The study will also involve Dr Juan M Rodriguez, from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, who provided access to the milk samples and Dr Allison Imrie, from UWA, who will focus on the virus-neutralising properties of human milk antibodies.
“We knew many colleagues were already addressing the risk of virus transmission through breast milk. We wanted to go further and show that, not only breast milk was not a way to get infected, but importantly a way to get protected,” she added.
Prof Verhasselt’s team has received a $223,000 grant from the Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund Focus Grant Program to pursue their questions.
“Thanks to the generous funding of the Future Health Research and Innovation and to the unique resource of 500 milk samples collected by Dr Rodriguez in Spain, we are now ready to analyse what the determinants of protective effects of breast milk are,” Prof Valerie Verhasselt said.
A key question pursued by this new research is whether mothers need to be infected or vaccinated to produce COVID-19-protective milk.
“My hypothesis is that any human milk will be protective against COVD-19 infection and maternal infection or vaccination will increase this capacity by raising anti-COVID-19 antibodies in maternal milk,” Prof Valerie Verhasselt said.
The results from this study may inform future vaccination strategies and help design new therapeutics, such as strategies using milk-derived antibodies. 