BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine elicited antibody response in blood and milk of breastfeeding women

Michal Rosenberg-Friedman, Aya Kigel, Yael Bahar, Michal Werbner, Joel Alter, Yariv Yogev, Yael Dror, Ronit Lubetzky, Moshe Dessau, Meital Gal-Tanamy, Ariel Many, Yariv Wine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

The importance of breastmilk in postnatal life lies in the strong association between breastfeeding and the reduction in the risk of infection and infection-related infant mortality. However, data regarding the induction and dynamics of breastmilk antibodies following administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is scarce, as pregnant and lactating women were not included in the initial vaccine clinical trials. Here, we investigate the dynamics of the vaccine-specific antibody response in breastmilk and serum in a prospective cohort of ten lactating women who received two doses of the mRNA vaccine. We show that the antibody response is rapid and highly synchronized between breastmilk and serum, reaching stabilization 14 days after the second dose. The response in breastmilk includes both IgG and IgA with neutralization capacity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6222
JournalNature Communications
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Funding

This work was supported by the Israel Ministry of Health (MOH) grant #3-17162 [Y.W.] and partially funded by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grant 401/18 to [M.D.].

FundersFunder number
Ministry of Health -Singapore3-17162
Israel Science Foundation401/18
Ministry of Health, State of Israel

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