Potentials of Breast Milk Antibodies as a Therapeutic for COVID-19

Abstract

Since the explosion of pneumonia-like symptoms in the province of Hubei, Wuhan in December 2019 over 200 countries have gotten a share of this disease caused by the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Till date, there exists no modest therapeutic agent to combat this virus. Antibodies in the breast milk of convalescent lactating mothers could be the silver bullet that would deflate the ballooning morbidity and mortality rate caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Coupled with the fact that breast milk contains a very high amount of Immunoglobulin A which has a desirable higher in vivo stability than other antibodies. This novel approach of purifying antibodies from the breast milk of convalescent lactating mothers is a non-invasive technique relative to the conventional method of using convalescent plasma which had proven effective for generating passive immunity against the seasonal flu. Purified Immunoglobulins would be obtained by adding an equal volume of ammonium sulphate solution to the breast milk sample to induce a lyotropic effect and thereafter passing the partially purified solution through a column chromatographic system impregnated with a Jaclin –lectin, Protein A, L and G. Neutralizing antibodies would by assayed using the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay technique. Various statistical tools will be used to analyze a double-blinded randomized clinical trials to ascertain the efficacy of the purified antibodies as it is expected to have clear cut effectiveness over the control and potentially become the invaluable in containing the pandemic.