Mushrooms have been valued for their health benefits and medicinal effects for centuries. One of the special components found from mushrooms is beta-glucan, which is predominantly composed in the fungal cell wall and is mostly composed of beta-D-glucose. In many researches, beta-glucan effectively stimulates the host immune response to defend against bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic infections [1]. Moreover, it is known as biological response modifier since it primarily achieves its disease protective activity through modulating the host immune system [2]. The stimulation of beta-glucan to macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer (NK) cells is proved by binding to the receptor (dectin-1) of these cells and modulates the systems [3, 4]. In clinical applications, beta-glucan is usually used as an adjuvant to enhance the effectiveness of the medicine [5, 6]. To sum up the experimental and clinical results, the potential anticancer activity from beta-glucan has been proven, and thus beta-glucan has been gaining prominence in clinical research during the past few years [6, 7].

-US National Library of Medicine

Medicinal mushrooms are mysterious and complex organisms comprising of 150 bioactive compounds that facilitate 126 medicinal functions. They are made up of alpha and beta-glucans, terpenoids, polysaccharide-protein complexes, phenols, sterols, peptides and proteins (1). Beta-glucans (a type of polysaccharide) are the most versatile of the bioactive compounds. As immunomodulators, they play a role in maximising the capabilities of the immune system, having the capacity to modify or modulate an immune response, which helps to promote immune system balance. Beta-glucans are found in all medicinal mushrooms with different mushrooms containing their own unique combination and therefore unique healing properties. Beta-glucans are biological response modifiers (BRMs) which unlike pharmaceutical drugs (which usually treat one symptom and have potential side effects) are adaptogens and are said to be able to adapt to our bodies specific needs, working synergistically on different body systems at the same time, optimising its physiological functions. This allows the therapeutic benefits to be wide reaching with the potential to help with a wide variety of conditions and help keep the body in balance.

Mycotherapy is defined as the study of the use of extracts and compounds obtained from mushrooms as medicines or health-promoting agents. The present review updates the recent findings on anticancer/antitumor agents derived from mushroom extracts and their metabolites.

The increasing number of studies in the past few years revealed mushroom extracts as potent antitumor agents. Also, numerous studies were conducted on bioactive compounds isolated from mushrooms reporting the heteropolysaccharides, β-glucans, α-glucans, proteins, complexes of polysaccharides with proteins, fatty acids, nucleoside antagonists, terpenoids, sesquiterpenes, lanostanoids, sterols and phenolic acids as promising antitumor agents. Also, molecular mechanisms of cytotoxicity against different cancer cell lines are discussed in this review. Findings with Antrodia camphorata and Ganoderma lucidium extracts and isolated compounds are presented, as being the most deeply studied previously.

Read full article in the journal: Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry