Comparison Between Therapeutic Antitoxin F(ab)2Fractionated with Ammonium Sulfate and Caprylic Acid

Simple and efficient protocol for immunoglobulin Y purification from chicken egg yolk

Besides being a common food component broadly consumed worldwide, egg yolk immunoglobulin Y (IgY) has essential therapeutic potentials. In fact, in a time of ever-increasing risk of antibiotic resistance, it is crucial to find new ways to battle infection, and oral administration of preformed specific antibodies represents one of the most attractive approaches against infection. Infectious diseases of bacterial and viral origin in humans and animals can be controlled and passively cured by orally applied IgYs isolated from chicken egg yolks. Despite multiple obvious advantages of oral administration of IgY, harvesting IgY from egg yolk in a pure form is a challenging task.

In this study, we developed a fast, simple, cost-effective, and efficient protocol for IgY isolation from chicken egg yolks. First, egg yolk was collected and diluted with 5 volumes of cold distilled water, homogenized, pH adjusted, and centrifuged. Next, the supernatant was collected, to which caprylic acid at concentration of 2% v/v was added, followed by pH adjustment to pH 5.0, centrifugation at 4°C, and collection of the resulting supernatant. This step was repeated twice, with adding 2% v/v of caprylic acid each time. The final supernatant was concentrated using ultrafiltration, and the IgY purity and activities were checked by SDS-PAGE, western blotting, and ELISA. The sequential (2, 2, 2%) addition of caprylic acid yielded IgY with a purity of 63.5, 90.6, and 95.8%, respectively, and reached 97.9% after ultrafiltration at pH 9.0. The IgY activity increased exponentially to reach 99% after the ultrafiltration step.

The proposed caprylic-acid-based protocol of IgY purification from the yolk of chicken eggs seems to be simple, fast, direct, and very cheap. This indicates that this protocol has great potential for scale-up processing.

Simple Protocol for immunoglobulin G Purification from Camel “Camelus dromedarius” Serum

The present study aimed to describe and standardize a simple and efficient protocol for purification of camel IgG from serum, which can be applied for Camilidae antibody production in research laboratories, the preindustrial stage. Camel serum IgG was separated with caprylic acid and ammonium sulfate, then the effect of four variables studied: caprylic acid concentration, pH, stirring time, and stirring intensity. Camel IgG prepared by standardized caprylic acid fractionation method for camel serum was compared with commercial anti-sera products. Camel IgG purification from undiluted sera using caprylic acid at concentration of 8% v/v gave the best results. Purification at different pH values using caprylic acid at 8% v/v revealed that pH 5.5 was optimal. Investigating purification at different stirring time intervals using 8% v/v caprylic acid at pH 5.5 demonstrated that stirring for 90 min gave the optimum results. Finally, studying purification at different stirring intensities using 8% v/v caprylic acid at pH 5.5 for 90 min, the best stirring intensity was at 450 rpm. Overall, the results suggest that caprylic acid purification of camel serum IgG is more effective and safe than ammonium sulfate method in simplicity, purity, and lower non-IgG proteins in the final preparation with lower protein aggregates.

The production of monovalent and anti-idiotype antivenom against Mesobuthus eupeus (Scorpionida: Buthidae) venom in rabbits

The antivenom production against poisonous creatures encounters a number of difficulties. Interestingly, according to the network theory the conventional antigens are not necessarily needed for producing antibodies against the venoms. In this investigation, the antivenom against Mesobuthus eupeus venom was produced based on the aforementioned theory. Polyclonal antibodies against M. eupeus venom were obtained from the immunized rabbits and the specific antibodies were isolated. After separation of Fab2, immunization process and production of the monovalent and anti-idiotype, these antivenoms were analyzed for the determination of their neutralizing power. The level of the produced antibodies in different stages of this study was also measured by ELISA assay. Four hundred and fifty micrograms of the venom can be neutralized by 4.2, 18 and 291 mg of monovalent, polyvalent and anti-idiotype antivenom, respectively. The ELISA results revealed that idiotypic antigens were six times more immunogenic than anti-idiotypes. The anti-idiotype antivenom can be produced on a large scale with minimum venom consumption. In addition, they are non-toxicant in immunized animals and can be used as a vaccine in people at the risk of scorpion stings.