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The Antibacterial Activity of Lactoferrin and Neonatal E. coli Infections

A Selective and Critical Review

  • Chapter
Advances in Lactoferrin Research

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 443))

Abstract

In 1960, Montreuil et al.1 among others described a method for isolating and purifying an iron-chelating protein from human milk now known as lactoferrin (Lf). In their discussion they made a suggestion which we are still trying to substantiate: “une activité antibiotique vis-à-vis de certains germes pathogènes pour le Nourrisson”. The suggestion that lactoferrin is antibacterial was based on the seminal paper by Schade & Caroline in 19442. They used raw hen egg white to stabilize a bacteriophage during lyophilization and observed that its host, Salmonella dysenteriae, was inhibited by the egg white; this inhibition could be reversed by the addition of iron. After a suitable ‘incubation time’ of about 20 years, this discovery, by serendipity, became the beginning for all aspects of iron and bacterial infection and immunity, as we now know. In 1961, Hanson3 discovered secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) which eventually led to the concept of Mucosal Associated Lymphoid Tissue (MALT)—the gut and lung, mammary, salivary and lacrymal glands, and the genital tract. In addition to sIgA, secretions can also contain other non-antibody protective proteins such as lactoferrin (Lf), lysozyme (LZ), lactoperoxidase (LP) and xanthine oxidase (XO). LP is the enzyme which catalyses the bacterial activity of the lactoperoxidase-thiocyanate-hydrogen peroxide system (LP-system)4.

It aint necessarily so The things that your preacher Is liable to teach yer It aint necessarily so.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child Health Institute, University of Bristol, UK

    Bruno Reiter

  2. Laboratoires Biopole, 75 Bvd Ed Machtens, 1080, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Jean-Paul Perraudin

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  1. Bruno Reiter
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  2. Jean-Paul Perraudin
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    Geneviève Spik , Dominique Legrand , Joël Mazurier  & Annick Pierce , ,  & 

  2. Biopole, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Paul Perraudin

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Reiter, B., Perraudin, JP. (1998). The Antibacterial Activity of Lactoferrin and Neonatal E. coli Infections. In: Spik, G., Legrand, D., Mazurier, J., Pierce, A., Perraudin, JP. (eds) Advances in Lactoferrin Research. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 443. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9068-9_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9068-9_21

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