ORAL ADMINISTRATION OF CHICKEN YOLK ANTIBODIES TO TREAT DISEASE

摘要

Broadly, the present invention is directed to the use of egg antibody preparations in the treatment of systemic disease in human and non-human mammals. IgY antibodies are first obtained from the egg of a domestic fowl hen which has been actively immunized against said one or more pathogenic organisms by injection with an immunogen containing immunogenic determinants specific to elicit such antibodies. The antibodies are then administered orally to a mammal suffering from an infectious systemic disease caused or exacerbated by such pathogenic organism or organisms. This invention, thus, is capable of providing passive immunity to patients with failing immunity or that are immunologically naive. It is unnecessary to separate the antibodies from the egg yolk, so processing and administration are convenient and inexpensive. Antibody produced from egg yolks of hens immunized against specific antigens are effective in controlling noxious agents, whether viral, bacterial, fungal, protozoal, toxins, enzymes, inflammatory mediators, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxines and other messenger molecules, sarcomas or carcinomas, not only within the bowel but also in tissues remote thereto. The immunogenic determinant may comprise only a specific portion of the pathogenic organism, e.g., the loop or coat of a virus or the fimbria of a piliated bacterium. The method of this invention has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of AIDS in human beings, TNF mediated septic shock in mice, and in lowering somatic cell count in dairy cattle.