Abstract
Background
There is extensive evidence that Holder pasteurization (HoP) (30 min at 62.5 °C) has harmful effects on the bioactivities of human milk (HM). We previously demonstrated that lowering HoP temperature is sufficient to inactivate Cytomegalovirus (HCMV). Here, we analyzed the effect of lowering time/temperature on the antiviral activity against HCMV and IgA levels of HM.
Methods
Eighty HM samples from five mothers were pasteurized in a range of temperature (62.5–56 °C) and time (40–10 min) in a conventional setting of Human Milk Bank. Unpasteurized HM from each mother was used as control. The samples were assayed against HCMV-AD169 strain in cell cultures and IgA levels were determined by ELISA.
Results
All HM samples exhibited anti-HCMV activity, to a different extent. An improvement of antiviral activity was observed in samples treated at 60, 58 and 56 °C compared to those at 62.5 °C, with ID50 values near those of unpasteurized milk. Similarly, better retention in IgA levels was observed by reducing the temperature of treatment.
Conclusions
We demonstrated that a 2.5 °C reduction of heat treatment significantly preserved the IgA content and fully restored the anti-HCMV activity of HM, supporting this variant of HoP as a valid alternative to preserve HM bioactivities.
Impact
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This work questions the standard HoP and opens the debate on whether the pasteurization temperature commonly used in Human Milk Banks should be lowered to better preserve the biological components of the milk.
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A reduction of HoP temperature at 60 °C determined a significant preservation of anti-HCMV activity and IgA content of donor HM, compared to standard HoP.
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This alternative HoP is highly feasible compared to other substitute pasteurization techniques, since it would employ the same pasteurizer equipment found in most Human Milk Banks.
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Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Marian Forteza from Illustrate Science (www.illustrate-science.com) for the design of Fig. 2a. The authors also want to express their gratitude to the mothers who selflessly donated samples of their milk for the realization of this study.
Funding
This work was supported by a grant (CDIi20/08) from Comissió de Docencia I Investigació de la Fundació Banc de Sang I Teixits de les Illes Balears. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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M.D., A.G.: substantial contributions to conception and design. I.A., J.C., M.R., S.G. M.L.: acquisition of data. I.A., J.C., M.R.: analysis and interpretation of data. I.A., J.C.: drafting the article. M.D., A.G., D.L.: revising the article critically for important intellectual content. All authors: final approval of the version to be published.
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The study was revised and approved by the Ethics Committee of Balearic Islands (CEIC IB; IB 5024/22 PI). Each milk donor signed a written consent form for the use of donated milk for research purposes, where the mother’s and infant’s data protection were assured.
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Arduino, I., Calvo, J., Rittà, M. et al. Impact of time-temperature combinations on the anti-Cytomegalovirus activity and biological components of human milk. Pediatr Res 94, 956–964 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02606-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02606-1
