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Flavor enhancer in soy sauce could help treat HIV
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Throughout the development of science, specialists have studied the properties of various plants, products, etc. in search of new medicines. For example, penicillin was obtained from a mold fungus, and quinine, used to treat malaria, was obtained from the cinchona tree.
Now experts continue to study the properties of products and plants, and recently a group of scientists announced the unusual properties of soy sauce - a well-known Japanese seasoning for sushi and many other Asian dishes.
As numerous studies have shown, one of the components of this sauce, namely the flavor enhancer EFdA, has a strong antiviral effect.
In one of the Mussoorie universities, after a series of experiments, experts determined that the EFdA compound, which is part of the flavor enhancer for soy sauce, can be used as an effective antiviral agent, which, according to experts, can be used to treat HIV. However, the ability of the flavor enhancer to suppress viruses was already known several years ago by one of the first manufacturers of this seasoning, the Yamasa company. The company's specialists found that its properties resemble one of the drugs used in HIV therapy. The flavor enhancer EFdA may be more effective than modern drugs for treating patients with HIV (for example, tenofovir, a combination of two antiviral drugs to which HIV-positive patients develop resistance).
By the way, both tenofovir and EFdA are nucleoside inhibitors that block the reproduction of the virus. According to the principle of action, these compounds participate in the construction of new DNA for the reproduction of the virus. Inhibitors replace viral molecules with their own when constructing DNA, which leads to the blocking of the development of the virus in the body. In other words, inhibitors stop the copying of the DNA chain, and when the compounds enter the DNA structure, the destruction of the virus begins.
Experts have determined that the soy sauce compound EFdA is more easily activated by cells and is broken down by the kidneys and liver rather slowly, unlike tenofovir. It is this property that distinguishes the EFdA compound from others.
Scientists tested the EFdA compound on monkeys infected with the immunodeficiency virus. The animals' condition at the beginning of the experiment was critical, they were apathetic, lethargic, and scientists planned to euthanize the animals. However, after they were given the EFdA compound, their well-being improved within a month, the monkeys became active, playful, and looked quite happy, and the concentration of the virus in the blood decreased to minimal levels (it became practically undetectable in the animals' bodies).
At this stage, the EFdA compound is being tested by one of the largest pharmaceutical companies as a drug for the treatment of HIV.
Soy sauce has been produced in Japan since 1600. About a quarter of a century ago, manufacturers began looking for ways to improve the flavor of the seasoning. In 2001, researchers determined that the EFdA compound, which enhances the sauce's flavor and aroma, also has antiviral properties, but that was the end of all research at that point.