Combined administration of a vaccine consisting of a small number (2 X 10(6)) of L1210 murine leukemic cells treated with glutaraldehyde and concanavalin A and a protein-bound polysaccharide preparation of Coriolus versicolor induced synergistic resistance to L1210 leukemia in BALB/c X DBA/2CrF1 mice. This effect was dependent on the dose and timing of the administration of the protein-bound polysaccharide preparation, being most effective at the time of or 1 day after the second vaccination. Induced resistance was not cross-reactive with P388 murine leukemia, indicating specificity of resistance. This immunopotentiation by the protein-bound polysaccharide did not occur when L1210 cells treated with glutaraldehyde, but not with concanavalin A, were used as a vaccine.
PMID: 922733 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]Free Article
Formation of the mRNA specific for the inducible forms of laccase was evidenced in Coriolus versicolor, Pleurotus ostreatus and Pholiota mutabilis. The half-life time of these mRNAs in the fungi species studied were, respectively, 30, 37 and 24 min. Molecular weight of the newly synthesized mRNA in Pleurotus ostreatus was about 4.5X10(5), consistently with the size of the inducible laccase protein. The polysome obtained from the ferulic acid-treated mycelium, synthesized in vitro a polypeptide with the electrophoretic mobility similar to that of laccase.
The influence of PSK, a protein bound polysaccharide from Coriolus versicolor on various immunological parameters was studied, PSK was found to enhance B cell activity as measured by the spleen plaque-forming cell assay in mice, and to stimulate mouse macrophages as determined by an enhancement of carbon clearance and an increase in the phagocytosis of opsonized sheep red blood cells by peritoneal mouse macrophages in vitro. The activation of mouse macrophages by PSK appeared to correlate with the therapeutic effects of the compound. In mice made granulocytopenic with cyclophosphamide and subsequently infected with a variety of garm-negative pathogens or with Candida albicans, PSK prolonged the average survival time of the animals. The compound also led to a drastic increase in the number of animals surviving such experimental infections as compared to untreated controls. Possible mechanisms responsible for these protective effects by PSK are discussed.
A water-soluble polysaccharide, D-II with marked antitumor activity was isolated from the cultured mycelium of Coriolus versicolor by extraction with hot-water, fractional precipitation with ethanol and ion-exchange chromatography. D-II strongly inhibited the growth of Sarcoma-180 transplanted subcutaneously in mice by intraperitoneal, intravenous, subcutaneous or intra-muscular administration at a dose of 5 mg/kg. the molecular weight was estimated to be 2,000,000 by gel-filtration or 6,500,000 by light scattering analysis. The chemical structure of D-II was then investigated by periodate oxidation, methylation analysis, Smith degradation, and a combination of controlled Smith degradation and methylation analysis. These studies proposed that D-II is composed of a unit structure of four D-glucose residues, and is a glucan consisting of beta-D-1,3-linked main chain in which one for every three D-glucose residues is branched at C-6 with beta-D-1,6-linkage.
To investigate the mechanism of tumor growth enhancement induced by operative stress in rats, laparo-thoracotomy was performed on day 2 after tumor cell inoculation associated with administrations of various kinds of immunopotentiators. OK-432 (Streptococcal preparation), PS-K (extract from mycelium of Coriolus Versicolor), Lentinan (extract from Lentinus Edodus) and C. parvum were administered intravenously or intraperitoneally in the fractionated form prior to or after inoculation. In general, administration of each immunopotentiator, except for Lentinan, resulted in a recovery from the reduction in survival days after laparo-thoracotomy. In particular, OK-432 administration prior to inoculation showed a significant improvement.
Female C3H/He mice aged 10 weeks with transplanted MM46 tumor were used in an investigation of the timing of administration of immunomodulators, such as PSK (a protein-bound polysaccharide prepared from Coriolus versicolor), OK-432 (streptococcal preparation), bestatin (inhibitor of aminopeptidase B) combined with two fractionated local irradiation with the total dose of 3,000 rad. The daily dose of 250 mg/kg of PSK, 1.0 KE/mouse of OK-432, or 300 micrograms/mouse of bestatin were injected intraperitoneally for 4 consecutive days before or after irradiation. The antitumor effect was evaluated by the changes of tumor volume and survival curves. When PSK or OK-432 was administered after irradiation, tumor growth was decreased and 60-day survival rate and survival curve were significantly elongated compared with the control group and the group to which PSK or OK-432 were administered before irradiation (p less than 0.025, p less than 0.05, respectively). As for bestatin, no remarkable difference was observed irrespective of the timing of administration. These results suggested that some immunomodulators show different antitumor activity depending on the combined timing relative to radiotherapy.
A protein-bound polysaccharide from mycelia of Coriolus versicolor PS-K, clinically used as an immunomodulator, has been shown to restore the decreased cellular immune response and to exhibit host-mediated antitumor activity. In this experiment, PS-K was found to increase serum complement level in guinea pig and in human without malignancy, when hemolytic assay of complement was performed using sensitized sheep erythrocytes for the classical pathway activity and unsensitized rabbit erythrocytes for the alternative pathway activity. Assay of complement components revealed increase in C3 level in guinea pig, but no significant changes in C1q, C4, C3, properdin, C3 activator, and C1-inhibitor in human, while C5 and C9 were depressed. Conversion of beta 1C to beta 1A was observed in the 7th day’s plasma of these patients by crossed immunoelectrophoresis. Biosynthesis of guinea pig C3 was accelerated by administration of PS-K, but that of C4 was not affected. These evidences suggested that PS-K might potentiate immune response of the host by elevating serum complement level, in addition to the activation of the complement system.
Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, Point Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R 3J9.
Abstract
Screening fifteen strains of white-rot fungi for their ability to decolorize combined bleached kraft effluent showed that Coriolus versicolor in liquid culture removed over 60% of the color of the effluent within six days in the presence of sucrose. Treatment of the same effluent with this fungus, immobilized in beads of calcium alginate gel, resulted in 80% decolorization after three days in the presence of sucrose. Caustic extraction E(1) effluent was also decolorized by the immobilized fungus. Decolorization was achieved more rapidly at pH 5.0 than at pH 7.0. Recycled beads could remove color efficiently and repeatedly in the presence of air but not under anaerobic conditions.
Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, 570 St. John’s Boulevard, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R 3J9.
Abstract
Effluent from the caustic extraction stage of a bleach plant is highly colored due to the presence of dissolved products from lignin chlorination and oxidation. Color removal from the effluent by hydrogen peroxide at neutral pH was catalyzed by addition of horseradish peroxidase. The catalysis with peroxidase (20 mg/L) was observed over a wide range of peroxide concentrations (0.1mM-500mM), but the largest effect was between 1mM and 100mM. The pH optimum for catalysis was around 5.0, while the basal rate of noncatalyzed peroxide color removal simply increased with pH within the range tested (3-10). Peroxidase catalysis at pH 7.6 reached a maximum at 40 degrees C in 4 h assays with 10mM peroxide, and disappeared above 60 degrees C. Compared with mycelial color removal by Coriolus versicolor, the rate of color removal by peroxide plus peroxidase was initially faster (first 4 h), but the extent of color removal after 48 h was higher with the fungal treatment. Further addition of peroxidase to the enzyme-treated effluent did not produce additional catalysis. Thus, the peroxide/peroxidase system did not fully represent the metabolic route used by the fungus.
A polysaccharide preparation isolated from Coriolus versicolor (Fr.) Quél. of Basidiomycetes (PSK) predominantly consists of glucan and approximately 25% tightly bound protein. PSK was effective against various allogeneic and syngeneic animal tumors and has been given orally to cancer patients. Various suppressed or enhanced immune responses of tumor-bearing animals were restored to normal levels by the administration of PSK in the tumor models tested. The killer T cell activity was augmented in tumor-bearing mice by intraperitoneal or oral administration of PSK, and there was correlation between the PSK associated antitumor effect and the killer T cell activity. It was found that PSK competed with immunosuppressive substances isolated from tumor-bearing mice and that the intestinal immune system appeared to be modulated by oral administration of PSK. After oral administration of 14C- or 35S-labeled PSK to normal rats, it was found that small or large molecular substances appeared in the serum depending on the time elapsed after administration, an indication that large molecular size products were from the digestive tract.