Researchers at the University of California, Davis, were able to produce antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in chicken eggs. Antibodies harvested from the eggs may be used to treat COVID-19 or as a preventive measure for people exposed to the disease. The paper was published July 9 in the journal Viruses.
“The beauty of the system is that you can produce a lot of antibodies in birds,” said Rodrigo Gallardo, professor of poultry, Department of Population Health and Reproduction at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. “In addition to the low cost of producing these antibodies in hens, they can be updated very quickly using updated antigens to superimmunize chickens, allowing protection against current variant strains.”
Birds produce a type of antibody called IgY, comparable to IgG in humans and other mammals. IgY does not cause allergy or trigger immune responses when injected into humans. IgY occurs both in the serum of birds and in their eggs. As a hen lays about 300 eggs a year, you can get a lot of IgY, Gallardo said.
Gallardo and colleagues vaccinated chickens with two doses of three different vaccines based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein or receptor-binding domain. They measured antibodies in blood samples from hens and in egg yolks three and six weeks after the last vaccination.
The purified antibodies were tested for their ability to prevent the coronavirus from infecting human cells at the National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases at George Mason University in Virginia.
Both eggs and sera from immunized hens contained antibodies that recognized SARS-CoV-2. The antibodies from the serum were more effective at neutralizing the virus, possibly because there are more antibodies in the blood overall, Gallardo said.
Gallardo is working with colleagues Daria Mochly-Rosen at Stanford University and Michael Wallach, University of Technology, Sydney, to develop the egg-based antibody technology. The team hopes to develop these antibodies into a preventative treatment, such as a spray, that could be used by people at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus.
Common coronavirus infections do not produce effective antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 More information: Emily J. Aston et al, Hyperimmunized Chickens Produce Neutralizing Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, Viruses (2022). DOI: 10.3390/v14071510
Reference: Production of COVID-19 Antibodies in Hen Eggs (2022, July 13) Retrieved July 14, 2022, from
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