Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Edible medicinal mushrooms have long been used in traditional medicine to help cancer patients. Recently, scientists have isolated bioactive components from some mushrooms and tested their anti-cancer effects. Pleurotus ferulae, a common edible medicinal mushroom in Xinjiang, China, has been traditionally used to treat cancer patients. However, there have been few studies on the anti-cancer components of Pleurotus ferulae. This study aims to extract these bioactive components and investigate their anti-cancer effects.
Researchers used ethanol to extract the bioactive components, which are rich in terpenoids, from Pleurotus ferulae. Scientists then tested the anti-tumor effects of these ethanol extracts on the melanoma cell line B16F10, the human gastric cancer cell line BGC 823, and the immortalized human gastric epithelial mucosa cell line GES-1 in the lab, as well as on a mouse model with melanoma. Researchers measured cell toxicity and cell proliferation using MTT assays. Additionally, scientists examined cell cycle progression, apoptosis, caspase 3 activity, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), cell migration, and gene expression in the lab.
The ethanol extracts from Pleurotus ferulae (PFEC) were found to suppress tumor cell growth and inhibit cell proliferation by stopping cells at the G0/G1 phase. Importantly, these extracts were not toxic to non-cancerous cells. PFEC also induced cell death through apoptosis and necrosis, increased caspase 3 activity, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, prevented cell invasion, and altered the expression of genes related to apoptosis and the cell cycle. In tests on mice, PFEC delayed the formation of tumors and reduced tumor growth.
In conclusion, the bioactive components extracted with ethanol from Pleurotus ferulae show anti-cancer effects by directly suppressing tumor cell growth and invasion, indicating their potential as a therapeutic option in cancer treatment.
Wang, W., Chen, K., Liu, Q., Johnston, N., Ma, Z., Zhang, F. 2014. “Suppression of Tumor Growth by Pleurotus ferulae Ethanol Extract through Induction of Cell Apoptosis, and Inhibition of Cell Proliferation and Migration.” PLoS ONE 9(7): e102673, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102673.
