Abstract
Background According to recent statistics by the WHO, the annual mortality rate associated with diarrhea is 30 deaths per 100 000 among Egyptian children younger than 5 years. Nearly 3.9% of the reported deaths are because of rotavirus infection. It is necessary to look for alternative treatment against rotavirus. Aim and methods The aim of this study is to investigate the antiviral activity of aqueous (AqE) and ethanol (EtOHE) extracts of the fruiting bodies of Agaricus spp and Pleurotus ostreatus against rotavirus infection using cell culture-based MTT assay. Results The tested extracts demonstrated significant inhibition effects against rotavirus infection up to 96.7, 90.6, 86.3, and 83.1% at concentration of 1000 μg/ml of P. ostreatus EtOHE, P. ostreatus AqE, Agaricus spp EtOHE, and Agaricus spp AqE, respectively, when added at zero time of the infection. Nothing was observed when extracts were added after viral infection. The synergistic activity was observed when different extracts were combined. Our results exhibited an inhibitory effect against different phases of rotavirus infection. Conclusion The use of edible mushrooms as a potential antiviral substance might be an alternative treatment against rotavirus infection. Nonetheless, more investigations are requiring for studying the efficacy in vivo and for segregating their fractions, which might clarify the mechanism of the inhibitory effect.
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