Can Japanese Natto Beans Help Fight Covid-19? What This Study Really Showed – Forbes

A study has suggested that enzymes in natt may keep the severe acute respiratory syndrome ... [+] coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) from infecting human cells in a laboratory. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

Bean there, done that.

A study Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications is getting some attention because it showed that the extract from natt beans, a traditional Japanese food item, could prevent Covid-19 coronavirus infections. However, before you start consuming natt by the truckload, keep in mind that these findings may only apply if you happen to be a clump of cells in a culture dish or test tube.

Thats because the study was done on cells from cattle and humans in a laboratory and not on whole people or other whole animals. Remember what happens in a lab in cell culture may stay in a lab and cell culture. Plenty of things that have worked in a lab have never panned out when it comes to real living humans. So take the findings from this study with more than the 12 grams of salt that a cup of natt beans may have.

Now on to the study. A team from the Center for Infectious Diseases of Epidemiology and Prevention Research (CEPiR), the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, the University of Miyazaki, and the National Institute of Technology (Mami Oba, Wen Rongduo, Akatsuki Saito, Tamaki Okabayashi, Tomoko Yokota, Junko Yasuoka, Yoko Sato, Koji Nishifuji, Hitoshi Wake, Yutaka Nibu, and TetsuyaMizutani) conducted the study. The research team prepared extracts of natt, which results when soybeans are fermented with bacteria called Bacillus subtilis. But instead of putting the natt on rice or topping it with mustard and long onion, they applied the extract to the cattle and human cells.

Natto is made from steamed and fermented soybeans. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

When unheated extract was used, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) and thebovine herpesvirus 1(BHV-1) struggled to infect the cells. However, when the natt was first heated at 100C for 10minutes, it no longer seemed to have any effect on either type of virus. The researchers hypothesized that the natt extract included enzymes called proteases that were breaking down key proteins on the surface of the viruses that gave the viruses the ability to infect cells. And that heating the natt extract then broke down and inactivated these proteases.

Indeed, the second part of the study seemed to confirm this hypothesis. Treating the natt extract first with protease inhibitors, medications that inhibit the activity of protease enzymes, then inhibited the ability of the natt extract to inhibit the viruses from infecting the cells. Got that?

In the third part of the study, the researchers applied the natt extract directly to the viruses and checked what happened to the proteins on the surfaces of the viruses. The extract appeared to break down a key portion of the spike protein that the SARS-CoV-2. This key portion, dubbed the receptor binding domain or the notorious RBD, is what the Covid-19 coronavirus uses to grab onto cells that it will invade. These enzymes also appeared to break down similar proteins on the surface of the BHV-1.

So again, this is good news if you are just a clump of cells in a culture dish or test tube. Of course, if thats the case, then youve got other problems. For example, you may have a tough time answering texts, posting stuff on Instagram, or speaking when invited on to the stage in Clubhouse. However, if you are a human being or even a gigantic squirrel, these findings may not necessarily apply to you.

Natt on udonnoodles. Yum. (Photo: Getty)

Again, there are many examples of things that seem to work on cells in a lab but dont end up being effective in people. First of all, conditions can be very different between a lab and the body. Individual cells can be like individual high school students when separated from their cliques or individual people wearing Viking hats and skins when not part of a mob. Individual cells dont always act the same way alone as when they are part of an organ or other body part.

Secondly, even if the natt extract were to work on cells when they are in your body, it may be very difficult to deliver enough natt extract to the right parts of your body. Inhaling gallons of natt extract so that your lungs and respiratory tract are filled with the stuff may not be very practical or healthy. Sure drowning from natt extract may prevent you from being infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus because you would be dead. But death has its other problems.

Plus, how often would you have to take the natt extract to keep you from being infected? Every day? Every hour? Every minute? Whoops its 9:23 pm, time for my natt extract. Oh wait, its 9:24 pm, time for some more natt extract. Hmm, it now seems to be 9:25 pm, which means more natt extract, could really interrupt a date or a job interview.

So, all in all, this study alone is natt lotta of evidence that natt can be used to prevent Covid-19 coronavirus infections in humans. Its a start, though. Many more scientific studies are needed to confirm whether natt indeed can prevent viruses from infecting cells and determine how this may work in real, complete, living animals and humans. Maybe in the future natt can prove useful or form the basis of new medications. But the future is not the present without a time machine.

That doesnt mean that you shouldnt eat natt. It has a decent amount of fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, protein, potassium, manganese, and vitamins B2, B6, C, E, and K. Of course, not everyone likes natt as they might avocado toast. Natt can be as polarizing as the series finale of the TV series How I Met Your Mother.You may either love or hate natt. The dish can be a bit of an acquired taste just like your longtime significant other, smelling to some like ammonia or pungent aged cheese and being sticky, gooey, and even mucous-y. Natt can go well on rice, toast, soup, noodles, and even all over your significant other, if you are into that kind of thing.

Some people have even called natt a super-food because of its nutrient content as this PBS Reactions segment shows:

So there are certainly worse things in the world than consuming more natt. Just dont expect it to replace Covid-19 vaccines or any other established Covid-19 precautions any time soon. Thats natt going to happen.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

See the original post:

Can Japanese Natto Beans Help Fight Covid-19? What This Study Really Showed - Forbes