Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19
Despite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding and the World Health Organization’s breastfeeding recommendations for COVID-19 infected mothers, whether these mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed is under debate due to concern about the risk of virus transmission and lack of evidence of breas...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Nutrients |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/12/2513 |
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| author | Juanjuan Guo Minjie Tan Jing Zhu Ye Tian Huanyu Liu Fan Luo Jianbin Wang Yanyi Huang Yuanzhen Zhang Yuexin Yang Guanbo Wang |
| author_facet | Juanjuan Guo Minjie Tan Jing Zhu Ye Tian Huanyu Liu Fan Luo Jianbin Wang Yanyi Huang Yuanzhen Zhang Yuexin Yang Guanbo Wang |
| author_sort | Juanjuan Guo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding and the World Health Organization’s breastfeeding recommendations for COVID-19 infected mothers, whether these mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed is under debate due to concern about the risk of virus transmission and lack of evidence of breastmilk’s protective effects against the virus. Here, we provide a molecular basis for the breastfeeding recommendation through mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics and glycosylation analysis of immune-related proteins in both colostrum and mature breastmilk collected from COVID-19 patients and healthy donors. The total protein amounts in the COVID-19 colostrum group were significantly higher than in the control group. While casein proteins in COVID-19 colostrum exhibited significantly lower abundances, immune-related proteins, especially whey proteins with antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2, were upregulated. These proteins were detected with unique site-specific glycan structures and improved glycosylation diversity that are beneficial for recognizing epitopes and blocking viral entry. Such adaptive differences in milk from COVID-19 mothers tended to fade in mature milk from the same mothers one month postpartum. These results suggest that feeding infants colostrum from COVID-19 mothers confers both nutritional and immune benefits, and provide molecular-level insights that aid breastmilk feeding decisions in cases of active infection. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:49:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e306cc5f25ce43e89ce064fc41141b7a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-6643 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:49:50Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nutrients |
| spelling | doaj.art-e306cc5f25ce43e89ce064fc41141b7a2023-11-23T18:22:29ZengMDPI AGNutrients2072-66432022-06-011412251310.3390/nu14122513Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19Juanjuan Guo0Minjie Tan1Jing Zhu2Ye Tian3Huanyu Liu4Fan Luo5Jianbin Wang6Yanyi Huang7Yuanzhen Zhang8Yuexin Yang9Guanbo Wang10Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Clinical Research Center for Prenatal Diagnosis and Birth Health, Wuhan 430071, ChinaInstitute for Cell Analysis, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, ChinaInstitute of Biotechnology and Health, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing 100089, ChinaInstitute for Cell Analysis, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, ChinaDepartment of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Clinical Research Center for Prenatal Diagnosis and Birth Health, Wuhan 430071, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Medical Virology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, ChinaSchool of Life Sciences, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, ChinaInstitute for Cell Analysis, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, ChinaDepartment of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Clinical Research Center for Prenatal Diagnosis and Birth Health, Wuhan 430071, ChinaNational Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, ChinaInstitute for Cell Analysis, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, ChinaDespite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding and the World Health Organization’s breastfeeding recommendations for COVID-19 infected mothers, whether these mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed is under debate due to concern about the risk of virus transmission and lack of evidence of breastmilk’s protective effects against the virus. Here, we provide a molecular basis for the breastfeeding recommendation through mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics and glycosylation analysis of immune-related proteins in both colostrum and mature breastmilk collected from COVID-19 patients and healthy donors. The total protein amounts in the COVID-19 colostrum group were significantly higher than in the control group. While casein proteins in COVID-19 colostrum exhibited significantly lower abundances, immune-related proteins, especially whey proteins with antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2, were upregulated. These proteins were detected with unique site-specific glycan structures and improved glycosylation diversity that are beneficial for recognizing epitopes and blocking viral entry. Such adaptive differences in milk from COVID-19 mothers tended to fade in mature milk from the same mothers one month postpartum. These results suggest that feeding infants colostrum from COVID-19 mothers confers both nutritional and immune benefits, and provide molecular-level insights that aid breastmilk feeding decisions in cases of active infection.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/12/2513COVID-19breastmilkcolostrumproteomicswhey proteinimmunoglobulin |
| spellingShingle | Juanjuan Guo Minjie Tan Jing Zhu Ye Tian Huanyu Liu Fan Luo Jianbin Wang Yanyi Huang Yuanzhen Zhang Yuexin Yang Guanbo Wang Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19 Nutrients COVID-19 breastmilk colostrum proteomics whey protein immunoglobulin |
| title | Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19 |
| title_full | Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19 |
| title_short | Proteomic Analysis of Human Milk Reveals Nutritional and Immune Benefits in the Colostrum from Mothers with COVID-19 |
| title_sort | proteomic analysis of human milk reveals nutritional and immune benefits in the colostrum from mothers with covid 19 |
| topic | COVID-19 breastmilk colostrum proteomics whey protein immunoglobulin |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/12/2513 |
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