Lay Summary

Proposal No. IBD-0024R
Principal Investigator:  Laura P. Hale, M.D., Ph.D.
Applicant Organization:  Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.)
Project Title: Bromelain treatment of inflammatory bowel disease
Period of Award:  December 1, 2003 - February 28, 2005

Bromelain is a natural product that is prepared from pineapple stems and can break down certain types of proteins.  Bromelain is sold in health food stores as a “digestive aid.”  A medical journal report recently described two patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) who still had severe colitis symptoms despite treatment with several standard UC medicines, but who became asymptomatic while taking oral bromelain.  Since these patients were not part of a clinical trial, it is not known whether the bromelain they took was actually responsible for their improvement.

Others and we have previously shown that bromelain removes certain proteins that are present on the cell surface of white blood cells.  These molecules are important for directing the migration and activity of these cells.  We suspect that removal of these proteins by bromelain changes the way that white blood cells interact with colon cells and decreases their ability to cause colitis.

The first goal of this study is to determine whether bromelain treatment decreases colitis in two models of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in mice.  The second goal is to determine whether bromelain treatment shows promise for treating human IBD.  Biopsies obtained from patients with IBD will be examined as to the effects of bromelain treatment on cellular activation and other markers of inflammation.
 
These studies will provide important information that is needed to understand how bromelain works and to plan future clinical trials of bromelain treatment in humans with IBD.  Understanding how bromelain works may also lead to development of new and improved treatments to prevent or treat IBD.