Discussion of bromelain is beginning to gain traction across the Internet as a potential supplement in the fight against covid. Let’s explore what science is currently being explored with regards to it! Bromelain is found in the stems of pineapple and only a small amount can be found in pineapple juice or pineapple fruit, itself. As such, the supplement is best purchased through vitamin or supplement brands (affiliate link). Buyer beware of course as the supplement industries is not heavily regulated like medications might be.
An article published in the Biomedical Reports in 2016 describes its potential for suppressing cancer cells, modulation of the immune system, and potential anti-inflammatory properties. The paper explores its ability to reduce interleukin I beta and 6 as well as some tumor necrosis factor (TNF) — each being cell signalling cytokines. These properties help reduce inflammatory processes while it also has the potential to modulate transforming growth factors and activation of natural killer cells and granulocyte production. Bromelain plays a “significant role as an anti-inflammatory agent.”
For some cancers, bromelain has shown promise as an adjuvant for cancer treatment through its ability to induce apoptosis—organized cell death—in cancer cells while also reducing the ability for tumor cells to grow. This is specific to only a few types of cancer; not all cancer responds to certain treatment modalities.
There are a number of other beneficial properties to this supplement, but we will digress back into the main purpose of this article, which is to explore bromelain’s potential role in the fight against Covid.
Bromelain And Covid
Exploration into Bromelain as an antiviral has supported the potential for bromelain to reduce the viral infection by way of reducing the binding abilities of the spike protein found in Sars-Cov-2. A published letter to the editor suggested that bromelain’s cysteine protease worked on the cleavage of covid’s spike protein with a host cells’ ACE-2 receptor site (Feb 2021). The same letter’s scientific inquiry demonstrated that bromelain had “profound” fibrinolytic activity.
Unfortunately, I was only able to find two trials registered with clinicaltrials.gov that used bromelain in a covid-19 study. One study was unrelated to bromelain as its glycoprotein was used as a reference agent in a vaccine trial and the other study was last updated in July 13, 2020 but shows as still recruiting candidates for use of zinc, quercetin, bromelain, and vitamin C. The latter being registered in Saudi Arabia.
Metabolism Open explored bromelain use with curcumin as a prevention of severe covid-19, demonstrating that bromelain has the ability to help with curcumin’s biolavailability and absorption when administered orally. Usually, curcumin’s most potent factors are not readily absorbed after oral administration, which is unfortunate because “viral entry, replication, protein expression, and viral attachment” are all pathways in which curcumin can inhibit viruses.