{"doi":"10.3389/fnut.2022.898849","title":"Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Booster Effects Are Seen in Human Milk Antibody Response","abstract":"Infants remain at high risk for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Human milk contains high levels of protective SARS CoV-2 specific antibodies post-infection and primary vaccine series, but levels decline over time. We hypothesized that the COVID-19 booster vaccine augment antibody production and the protection afforded to human milk-fed infants. We prospectively enrolled pregnant or lactating mothers planning to receive COVID-19 vaccination. We measured human milk IgG, IgA, and IgM antibodies targeting the SARS CoV-2 receptor binding domain within the spike protein and human milk neutralization activity against SARS CoV-2 in 10 lactating mothers from pre-COVID-19 primary series vaccine to post-booster dose. Human milk SARS CoV-2 specific IgG increased significantly from pre- to post-booster levels (median OD 0.33 vs. 2.02, P = 0.002). The IgG levels post-booster were even higher than the peak level after the primary series (2.02 vs. 0.95, P = 0.03). The increase in SARS CoV-2 specific IgA levels was not significant (0.10 vs. 0.33, P = 0.23). There was a strong correlation between paired maternal blood and milk IgG and IgA levels (IgG rho 0.52, P < 0.001, IgA rho 0.31, P = 0.05). Post-booster neutralizing activity was elevated compared to pre-booster levels (66% vs. 12% inhibition, P = 0.002). COVID-19 vaccine booster elicits SARS CoV-2 specific antibodies in human milk at higher levels compared to the initial primary series. This finding suggests that three doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination leads to improved mucosal response in human milk and reinforces current guidance recommending all pregnant or lactating mothers receive full COVID-19 vaccine courses with a booster dose.","journal":"Frontiers in Nutrition","year":2022,"id":259843,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":16,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9556,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":296618,"name":"Yesun Lee","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":400254,"name":"Wesley A. Cheng","orcid":"0000-0001-9131-8556","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":868316,"name":"Carolyn Jennifer Marentes Ruiz","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":91739,"name":"Pia S. Pannaraj","orcid":"0000-0002-5208-0933","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":912509,"name":"Jeffrey M. Bender","orcid":"0000-0001-9768-264X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":32,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:25:58.993402Z","pmid":"35685893","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}