Preliminary study of antivirus for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) using combined protease enzyme (bromelain) and lipozyme

The outer structure of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is comprised of coat proteins and lipid bilayer. In order to destroy HIV, the outer membrane must be handled first. A proteolytic enzyme called bromelain has been proven to destroy HIV by showing negative result on rapid HIV-strip test. The current research is dealing with lipozyme. This enzyme is a fat-digesting enzyme that helps digestion and absorption of nutrients. Two types of lypozymes are used in this research, lipase and phospholipase. Lipase helps the catalysis of triglycerides while phospholipase catalyses the degradation of phospholipids. The research was done by incubating HIV-positive serum at 37°C with various enzymes: bromelain from pineapple stem, lipase from Candida rugosa, and phospholipase from rat liver mitochondria. The experiment result shows that lipase boosts up the bromelain's activity slightly while rat liver mitochondria are more likely to inhibit the activity of bromelain.