Department of Radiation Medicine (Radiobiology Program), Loma Linda University and Medical Center, Loma Linda, Calif. 92354, USA. xmao@dominion.llumc.edu
Abstract
Long-term control of high-grade brain tumors is rarely achieved with current therapeutic regimens. The major goal of this study was to determine whether polysaccharopeptide (PSP), a crude polysaccharide peptide extract derived from Coriolus versicolor, a fungus, could enhance the effects of radiation against glioma cells in culture and in xenografted tumors in vivo. PSP significantly augmented radiation-induced damage to C6 rat glioma cells in vitro. Nude mice injected subcutaneously with the C6 cells were treated with PSP (injected intraperitoneally at 2 mg/injection) and radiation (2 Gy/fraction, 8 Gy in total) using three different time-dose protocols. Tumor volumes were consistently smaller in all treated groups compared to the non-treated tumor-bearing controls except in one group which received PSP prior to tumor implantation. The administration of radiation alone resulted in the slowest tumor progression, whereas PSP alone had no effect. Furthermore, PSP in combination with radiation treatment did not increase radiation efficacy. Natural killer cell, lymphocyte and granulocyte counts in blood and spleen were significantly higher in PSP-treated animals, demonstrating that PSP has protective effects on immunological function. Collectively, these results warrant further investigation to determine if PSP can be effectively utilized to upregulate immune responsiveness in case of neoplasia and other diseases in which immunosuppression is a prominent feature.
School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT.
Abstract
Coriolus versicolor (CV) is a medicinal mushroom widely prescribed for the prophylaxis and treatment of cancer and infection in China. In recent years, it has been extensively demonstrated both preclinically and clinically that aqueous extracts obtained from CV display a wide array of biological activities, including stimulatory effects on different immune cells and inhibition of cancer growth. The growing popularity of aqueous CV extracts as an adjunct medical modality to conventional cancer therapies has generated substantial commercial interest in developing these extracts into consistent and efficacious oral proprietary products. While very limited information is available on the physical, chemical, and pharmacodynamic properties of the active principles present in these extracts, there has been sufficient scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing at least some of these constituents into an evidence-based immunodulatory agent. In this article, the background, traditional usage, pharmacological activities, clinical effects, adverse reactions, active constituents, and regulatory aspects of CV are reviewed. Presented also in this review are the current uses and administration, potential drug interactions, and contraindication of aqueous extracts prepared from CV.
We isolated and analysed two genomic DNAs that encode the heat-shock protein Hsp30 from Coriolus versicolor. The amino acid sequences substitute only three amino acid substitutions. The promoter regions contain the consensus heat-shock element, a xenobiotic-response element, a stress-response element, and a metal-response element. The levels of mRNAs for Hsp30 increased markedly after exposure of C. versicolor to pentachlorophenol and levels were higher than those after heat shock.
PMID: 12224644 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]Free Article
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Abstract
A cDNA encoding cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (CPR) from the lignin-degrading basidiomycete Coriolus versicolor was identified using RT-PCR. The full-length cDNA consisted of 2,484 nucleotides with a poly(A) tail, and contained an open reading frame. The G+C content of the cDNA isolated was 60%. A deduced protein contained 730 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of 80.7 kDa. The conserved amino acid residues involved in functional domains such as FAD-, FMN-, and NADPH-binding domains, were all found in the deduced protein. A phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that C. versicolor CPR is significantly similar to CPR of the basidiomycete Phanerochaete chrysosporium and that they share the same major branch in the fungal cluster. A recombinant CPR protein was expressed using a pET/ Escherichia coli system. The recombinant CPR protein migrated at 81 kDa on SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It exhibited an NADPH-dependent cytochrome c reducing activity.
Department of Food Science, National Chung-Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung 402, Taiwan, Republic of China. jlmau@dragon.nchu.edu.tw
Abstract
Three species of medicinal mushrooms are commercially available in Taiwan, namely, Ganoderma lucidum (Ling-chih), Ganoderma tsugae (Sung-shan-ling-chih), and Coriolus versicolor (Yun-chih). Methanolic extracts were prepared from these medicinal mushrooms and their antioxidant properties studied. At 0.6 mg/mL, G. lucidum, G. lucidum antler, and G. tsugae showed an excellent antioxidant activity (2.30-6.41% of lipid peroxidation), whereas C. versicolor showed only 58.56%. At 4 mg/mL, reducing powers were in the order G. tsugae (2.38) approximately G. lucidum antler (2.28) > G. lucidum (1.62) > C. versicolor (0.79). At 0.64 mg/mL, scavenging effects on the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical were 67.6-74.4% for Ganoderma and 24.6% for C. versicolor. The scavenging effect of methanolic extracts from G. lucidum and G. lucidum antler on hydroxyl radical was the highest (51.2 and 52.6%) at 16 mg/mL, respectively. At 2.4 mg/mL, chelating effects on ferrous ion were in the order G. lucidum antler (67.7%) > G. lucidum (55.5%) > G. tsugae (44.8%) > C. versicolor (13.2%). Total phenols were the major naturally occurring antioxidant components found in methanolic extracts from medicinal mushrooms. Overall, G. lucidum and G. tsugae were higher in antioxidant activity, reducing power, scavenging and chelating abilities, and total phenol content.
Paul Stamets is an American mycologist, author, and advocate of bioremediation and medicinal mushrooms. Stamets is on the editorial board of The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, and is an advisor to the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical School, Tucson, Arizona. He is active in researching various properties of mushrooms.
Here is what Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world:
Using the differential display reverse-transcriptional polymerase chain reaction (DDRT-PCR) technique, several cDNA fragments were isolated as chemical stress responsive genes from the white-rot basidiomycete, Coriolus versicolor, exposed to either 4-methyldibenzothiophene-5-oxide (4MDBTO) or dibenzothiophene-5-oxide (DBTO). A database search on deduced amino acid sequences of cDNAs revealed that they showed a high similarity with various proteins from other organisms. These results strongly suggested that cell responding systems might be involved in the fungal metabolism of exogenous chemicals by C. versicolor. One of the significantly up-regulated cDNA fragments by MDBTO, DD16gc, showed a high similarity to arylalcohol dehydrogenases (AADs) from several microorganisms. The full-length cDNA sequence of the DD16gc determined by 5′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends method revealed that the gene consisted 1,295 nucleotide and poly(A) tail, encoding 394 amino acids in an open reading frame. The deduced protein showed a remarkable homology to AAD from Phanerochaete chrysosporium (66% identity) and to that from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (54% identity). The AAD gene was specifically transcripted under chemically-stressed conditions by 4MDBTO, suggesting that the enzyme encoded by the stress responsive gene may play an important role in the fungal conversion of 4MDBTO or its metabolic product(s).
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The goal of this in vitro study was to test the cytostatic and cytotoxic activities of extracts derived from the polysaccharopeptide (PSP), I’m-Yunity (Integrated Chinese Medicine Holdings Ltd., Kowloon, Hong Kong) prepared from strain Cov-1 of the mushroom Coriolus versicolor.
DESIGN: Different volumes of 70% ethanol and water extracts of I’m-Yunity were incubated with cultures of human promyelocytic leukemic HL-60 cells, and compared to nontreated control cells. At various times after treatment, cells were harvested and analyzed with respect to: (1). proliferation and cell cycle phase distribution, (2). induction of apoptosis, and (3). changes in expression of the immunomodulating cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6, and IL-8. To test whether extracts also affected normal cells, similar experiments were also performed using isolated peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy volunteers, with and without stimulation by the mitogen phytohemagglutinin (PHA). The ability of extracts to affect the secretion of IL-1 beta, IL-6, and IL-8 were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
RESULTS: HL-60 cells incubated with various amounts (1, 3, 5, 7.5, and 10 micro l/mL) of the extracts for 1-3 days showed dose-dependent, time-dependent growth suppression and decrease in cell viability. Flow cytometric analysis revealed partial cell arrest in the G(1) phase at less than 5 micro L/mL and induction of apoptosis at 10 micro L/mL or more of ethanol and water extracts, with the latter exhibiting more pronounced inhibition than the former. Experiments performed with lymphocytes demonstrated that extracts of I’m-Yunity alone were without effect; moreover, they also did not affect the lymphocyte response to PHA. Water extract of I’m-Yunity also significantly increased IL-1 beta and IL-6 while substantially lowering IL-8.
CONCLUSIONS: I’m-Yunity acts selectively in HL-60 leukemic cells, resulting in cell cycle restriction through the G(1)/S checkpoint and the induction of apoptosis.
Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143 005, Punjab, India.
Abstract
The ligninolytic system of white rot fungi is primarily composed of lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase (MnP) and laccase. The present work was carried out to determine the best culture conditions for production of MnP and its activity in the relatively little-explored cultures of Dichomitus squalens, Irpex flavus and Polyporus sanguineus, as compared with conditions for Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Coriolus versicolor. Studies on enzyme production under different nutritional conditions revealed veratryl alcohol, guaiacol, Reax 80 and Polyfon H to be excellent MnP inducers.
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Abstract
Both laccase production by the white-rot fungus Coriolus versicolor and decolorization of dyestuff and dying waste water with crude solution of laccase were studied in this work. Laccase production meets the definition of secondary metabolism. For laccase production the optimum initial pH is 4.5. Addition of veratryl alcohol or elevated trace metals could both enhance the laccase activity, while Tween80 showed some inhibition. The immobilized mycelia of C. versicolor in polyurethane foam had less laccase production ability than mycelial pellets. A repeated batch cultivation process was found to be a very economical way for laccase harvest. The same pellets could be used for at least 14 times and average laccase activity of each batch could maintain 6.72 IU/mL. This method reduces the enzyme production course, medium consumption and the possibility of contamination, showing high efficient and great economic benefit. Good results were also obtained in decolorization experiments with the crude solution of laccase. With 3.3 IU/mL initial laccase activity, color removal of Acid Orange reached 98.5% after 24 h reaction. Also with 2.6 IU/mL initial laccase activity, color removal of dying waste water reached 93% after 24 h reaction.