From food to medicine: Process development and use of functionalized polyclonal antibodies from cow's milk for the treatment of infections caused by multi-resistant bacteria

In this thesis, the process-technical prerequisites were achieved to provide new cow antibody-based therapeutic options for bacterial infections as substitutes for non-specific antibiotics. Microfiltration was investigated for the fractionation of antibodies from milk and a new scalable chromatography process for the isolation of IgG was developed. Specific polyclonal antibodies were induced by immunization of cows in milk, the products obtained were characterized and their efficacy demonstrated for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infection in an animal model.