Antiviral Effects of Nattokinase

Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 and Bovine Herpes Virus-1 Demonstrated in Vitro

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Recently there has been intense focus on “natto” derived from the fermentation of steamed soy by bacillus subtilis. Nattokinase is a proteolytic enzyme used as an oral supplement by the Japanese for the chronic treatment of atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease. Now a recent study in the COVID-19 era by the Japanese demonstrated preventive antiviral effects against SARS-CoV-2 mutant strains and bovine herpes virus type 1. The mechanism appears to be proteolytic cleavage of viral proteins.

Oba and colleagues performed a series of experiments with various concentrations of nattokinase in preclinical models. They found: 1) nattokinase effectively stopped infection of human cells in culture from SARS-CoV-2 and bovine herpes virus type 1, 2) the proteolytic effect of nattokinase was heat sensitive.

Oba M, Rongduo W, Saito A, Okabayashi T, Yokota T, Yasuoka J, Sato Y, Nishifuji K, Wake H, Nibu Y, Mizutani T. Natto extract, a Japanese fermented soybean food, directly inhibits viral infections including SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2021 Sep 17;570:21-25. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.07.034. Epub 2021 Jul 13. PMID: 34271432; PMCID: PMC8276596.

While many around the world feel they cannot wait for large-scale randomized trials of nattokinase in the treatment of vaccine injury syndromes, they may not realize there may be an additional salutary effect—prevention of subsequent COVID-19 infections.

While it is too early to make therapeutic claims, there is no doubt that data on nattokinase is the most promising we have seen among all solutions reviewed to end the final stages of the pandemic crisis—long COVID, vaccine injury syndromes, and recurrent Omicron infections.

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Oba M, Rongduo W, Saito A, Okabayashi T, Yokota T, Yasuoka J, Sato Y, Nishifuji K, Wake H, Nibu Y, Mizutani T. Natto extract, a Japanese fermented soybean food, directly inhibits viral infections including SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2021 Sep 17;570:21-25. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.07.034. Epub 2021 Jul 13. PMID: 34271432; PMCID: PMC8276596.