Egg Yolk Immunoglobulins (IgY) Purification, Activity Enhancement, and Potential Benefits for Human Health

With the rapid development of the laying hen industry and the continuous innovation of farming technology, egg production continues to grow. Eggs are rich in proteins and lipids, and chicken egg yolk immunoglobulins (IgY) antibodies, which play an im-portant role in the treatment of human diseases, the prevention of bacterial and viral infections. In addition, IgY has advantages over IgG in biological structure and func-tion and is characterised by high specificity, safety, yield and economic efficiency. This review describes the basic structure and properties of IgY, lists a variety of IgY purifi-cation methods and outlines measures to maintain and enhance its activity, focuses on the current status of its research in immunoprevention and treatment of human dis-eases and outlines its importance, and finally proposes the current challenges and fu-ture research priorities of IgY in the field of biomedical research to provide a scientific basis for the wide range of applications of IgY in human health.