Potential Antiviral Effect of Korean Forest Wild Mushrooms against Feline Coronavirus (FCoV)

Coronaviruses (CoV) are among the major viruses that cause common cold in humans. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a high-risk human pathogen that derived from bat coronaviruses, although several other animals serve as CoV hosts, contributing to human infection. As the human activity area expanded, viruses previously prevalent only in animals mutated and became threats to humans as well, leading to worldwide epidemics. Therefore, controlling CoV infections in animals is essential to prevent CoV-related human infections. Feline coronavirus (FCoV) could be reportedly used as an alternative model for SARS-CoV-2. Traditionally, mushrooms are not only foods but are also consumed to prevent diseases. Importantly, certain edible and medicinal mushrooms display antibacterial and antiviral effects against respiratory pathogens; therefore, they could be tested as potential coronavirus treatment agents. In this study, we investigated if wild forest mushrooms with various reported physiological activities could exhibit an antiviral activity against CoV, using FCoV as a SARS-CoV-2 model infecting Crandell Rees feline kidney cells. We measured the antiviral activity of 11 wild mushrooms overall and our results demonstrated that <i>Pleurotus ostreatus </i>and <i>Phallus luteus</i> displayed the highest antiviral efficacy of 55.33&#37;, followed by <i>Tricholoma bakamatsutake</i> at 43.77&#37;. <i>Grifola frondosa, Morchella esculenta</i>, and <i>Sarcodon imbricatus</i> exhibited mild efficacy of 29.21&#37;. We also tested <i>Amanita caesareoides, Marasmius siccus, Pachyma hoelen, Phallus rubrovolvata</i>, and <i>Sparassis latifolia</i> but could not detect any antiviral activity in their case. Our study confirms that wild forest mushrooms could be used as potential functional foods or pharmacological materials against coronavirus.