P1-antigen-containing avian egg whites as inhibitors of P adhesins among wild-type Escherichia coli strains from patients with urosepsis. Infect. Immun

significantly more effective inhibitors of P-adhesin-specific agglutination than were chicken egg whites or globoside. Globoside's inefficacy may have resulted from a proadherence effect of globoside's lipid tail. Adhesin phenotypes determined with dove and pigeon egg whites as agglutination inhibitors corresponded closely with phenotypes defined by comparative hemagglutination of human P1 and p erythrocytes. These data suggest that avian Pl-antigen-containing substances may provide a useful alternative method for P adhesin inhibition among uropathogenic E. coli strains. P adhesins of uropathogenic Escherichia coli promote urinary tract colonization through their specific attachment to Gal(al1- 4)Gal moieties on host cell surfaces (14, 21, 23, 27, 28). Soluble compounds containing this critical Gal (al->4)Gal moiety inhibit the interaction of P adhesins with surface receptors, presumably by occupying digalactoside-binding sites on P-adhesin molecules (21, 23, 24, 27, 28). Inhibitors of digalactoside-specific adherence are useful in the laboratory characterization of mannose-resistant (MR