**6. Inactivation of non-enveloped viruses by quaternary ammonium compounds**

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC) are widely used as active ingredients for disinfectants. Among the advantages of QAC are good stability, dual function of disinfection and cleaning, surface activity, low toxicity, and lack of odor, etc. The potential limitation in the microbicidal efficacy and possible effect in promoting antimicrobial resistance of QAC have also been discussed in the literature [54, 55].


*Variability and Relative Order of Susceptibility of Non-Enveloped Viruses to Chemical… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102727*

*a See Table 1 for abbreviations used for viruses. <sup>b</sup>*

*BSA, bovine serum albumin; medium, culture medium; QAC, quaternary ammonium compound.*

*Entries in purple font indicate results from original or diluted formulations with microbicidal active ingredients.*

#### **Table 5.**

*Efficacy of QAC against non-enveloped viruses.*

Quaternary ammonium compounds are generally efficacious on most vegetative bacteria and enveloped viruses. Their efficacies against non-enveloped viruses, however, are generally much weaker. Nevertheless, several non-enveloped viruses, such as rotavirus, rhinovirus, and coxsackievirus A11, have been shown to be susceptible to QAC. The susceptibility levels among the *Adenoviridae* family of viruses seem to vary, with adenovirus 8 displaying less susceptibility than adenovirus 5. Both feline calicivirus and murine norovirus display low susceptibility to QAC (**Table 5**). The relative order of susceptibility of non-enveloped viruses to QAC does not seem to align well with the relative size of the virions; and the efficacy of QAC is often dependent on the product formulation.
