tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Sci Rep
. 2025 Apr 7;15(1):11882.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-92242-y. Antiviral effect of Bromelain combined with acetylcysteine against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
Erik Vinicius de Sousa Reis[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Linziane Lopes Ferreira[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Felipe Alves Clarindo[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Geovane Marques-Ferreira[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Leonardo Camilo de Oliveira[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Thaís de Fátima Silva Moraes[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Luciana Debortoli de Carvalho[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Flávio Guimarães da Fonseca[SUP] 1 4 [/SUP], Adriano de Paula Sabino[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Mathew Suji Eapen[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mauro Martins Teixeira[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Sarah J Valle[SUP] 6 7 8 [/SUP], David L Morris[SUP] 9 10 11 12 [/SUP], Jordana Grazziela Alves Coelho-Dos-Reis[SUP] 13 14 [/SUP]
Affiliations
The recent pandemic represented one of the biggest challenges of modern civilization. SARS-CoV-2 remains an imminent public health threat and currently, there is no effective and greatly affordable treatment for severe COVID-19. Although standard management with dexamethasone, and physical management including physiotherapy, prone positioning and mechanical ventilation are used, severe disease patients may still succumb to infection. In this regard, BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] is a combination therapy of a refined protein derived from Bromelain and acetylcysteine, that shows significant mucolytic and anti-inflammatory properties. In the present study, we performed in vitro, and ex vivo analyses to assess the effect of BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] in inhibiting Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 at different levels. Here, we provide evidence of the in vitro virucidal activity of BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] in Vero-ACE2/TMPRSS2 cell line infected with the Omicron variant. BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] can also abrogate SARS-CoV-2 RNA genomic copies in tracheal aspirate (TA) samples from critically ill COVID-19 patients after long term exposure. These results were confirmed by lower spike expression observed in EpCAM[SUP]+[/SUP]PanCK[SUP]neg[/SUP] epithelial cells from tracheal aspirate samples after BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] treatment. Furthermore, atomized BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] promoted cleavage of the S1 Spike subunit in TA samples, demonstrating the mechanism of the antiviral activity displayed by BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] in human samples. These results bring novel evidence of antiviral activity in cell lines in vitro as well as in tracheal aspirate samples from critically ill COVID-19 patients, which support its potential use as an adjunct to COVID-19 management in future waves of Omicron subvariants.
Keywords: BromAc®; COVID-19; Mucolytic; SARS-CoV-2.
. 2025 Apr 7;15(1):11882.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-92242-y. Antiviral effect of Bromelain combined with acetylcysteine against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
Erik Vinicius de Sousa Reis[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Linziane Lopes Ferreira[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Felipe Alves Clarindo[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Geovane Marques-Ferreira[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Leonardo Camilo de Oliveira[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Thaís de Fátima Silva Moraes[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Luciana Debortoli de Carvalho[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Flávio Guimarães da Fonseca[SUP] 1 4 [/SUP], Adriano de Paula Sabino[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Mathew Suji Eapen[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Mauro Martins Teixeira[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Sarah J Valle[SUP] 6 7 8 [/SUP], David L Morris[SUP] 9 10 11 12 [/SUP], Jordana Grazziela Alves Coelho-Dos-Reis[SUP] 13 14 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 40195407
- PMCID: PMC11976912
- DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-92242-y
The recent pandemic represented one of the biggest challenges of modern civilization. SARS-CoV-2 remains an imminent public health threat and currently, there is no effective and greatly affordable treatment for severe COVID-19. Although standard management with dexamethasone, and physical management including physiotherapy, prone positioning and mechanical ventilation are used, severe disease patients may still succumb to infection. In this regard, BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] is a combination therapy of a refined protein derived from Bromelain and acetylcysteine, that shows significant mucolytic and anti-inflammatory properties. In the present study, we performed in vitro, and ex vivo analyses to assess the effect of BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] in inhibiting Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 at different levels. Here, we provide evidence of the in vitro virucidal activity of BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] in Vero-ACE2/TMPRSS2 cell line infected with the Omicron variant. BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] can also abrogate SARS-CoV-2 RNA genomic copies in tracheal aspirate (TA) samples from critically ill COVID-19 patients after long term exposure. These results were confirmed by lower spike expression observed in EpCAM[SUP]+[/SUP]PanCK[SUP]neg[/SUP] epithelial cells from tracheal aspirate samples after BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] treatment. Furthermore, atomized BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] promoted cleavage of the S1 Spike subunit in TA samples, demonstrating the mechanism of the antiviral activity displayed by BromAc[SUP]®[/SUP] in human samples. These results bring novel evidence of antiviral activity in cell lines in vitro as well as in tracheal aspirate samples from critically ill COVID-19 patients, which support its potential use as an adjunct to COVID-19 management in future waves of Omicron subvariants.
Keywords: BromAc®; COVID-19; Mucolytic; SARS-CoV-2.