Cytotoxicity, Antibiotic Combination and Antiviral Activity of Papain Enzyme: In vitro study Mohamed Sara H.1,*, Mohamed Walaa S.1, Shaheen Mohamed N. F.2, Elmahdy Elmahdy M.2, Mabrouk Mona I.1 1Department of Microbiology, National Organization for Drug Control and Research, Giza, Egypt 2Environmental Virology Laboratory Water Pollution Research Department Environmental Research, Division, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt *Corresponding Author E-mail: sara_hussein_moh@yahoo.com
Online published on 3 June, 2020. Abstract The increasing rate of antimicrobial resistance especially among the problematic clinical pathogens had become significantly challenging, therefore alternative therapeutic options other than antibiotics are in need. In this work, we investigated the cytotoxicity of papain enzyme, as well as its ability to enhance the activity of different generations of quinolone antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin) which was studied using broth micro-dilution method. Antiviral activity was studied against rotavirus. As a result, high toxicity on MA104 was detected for the used papain concentrations except for the lowest concentration (3 mg/ml) which was the least. The antagonistic effect resulted in papain combination with ciprofloxacin among 3 strains (30%), but for levofloxacin, antagonistic effect showed in one strain (10%) while the other strains showed no effect before and after combination. No antiviral activity was shown against rotavirus infection in vitro when various concentrations (10-4-10-9) of virus prepared from a viral stock of 106 TCID50. In conclusion, according to our results, we don't suggest the use of the tested concentrations of papain enzyme for pharmaceutical purposes, but based on its ability to inhibit and eradicate biofilms of Klebsiella pneumoniae, we can use it for surfaces sterilization purposes, but this also needs further studies. Future studies focused on testing the role of those high toxic papain concentrations as anti-cancer agent are in need. Top Keywords Papain, MA104, MTT, Rotavirus, Quinolone-antibiotics. Top |