Hetero-biosynthesis of the main bioactive components from medicinal fungus Shiraia bambusiccola / 药学学报

italic>Shiraia bambusiccola is an important medicinal fungus in China. Hypocrellins with perylenequinone skeleton are main bioactive components of Shiraia bambusiccola, which are widely used in food, medicine, pesticide and other fields as natural photosensitizers. For example, "hypocrellin ointment" has already been used clinically. As a rare and vulnerable species, wild Shiraia bambusiccola resources are very limited. Due to the complex structure and chanllenge in chemical total synthesis of hypocrellins, it is urgent to find an effective strategy to rationally utilize its medicinal value while protecting the wild resources. In this study, a candidate gene cluster hpc was identified in Shiraia sp. cfcc 84681 based on careful bioinformatic analysis. A heterologous expression system for hpc gene cluster was successfully constructed and a mutant strain with high yield of hypocrellins was obtained, which mainly produced hypocrellin A and isohypocrellin A. The main ingredients in the mutant strain are consistent with that in the wild Shiraia bambusiccola. These results provide a new strategy to solve the shortage of wild Shiraia bambusiccola resources.

Chemical Constituents of the Culture Broth of Phellinus linteus and Their Antioxidant Activity

The medicinal fungus Phellinus linteus, in the family Hymenochaetaceae, has been used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases. In this study, the chemical constituents of the culture broth of P. linteus were investigated. P. linteus was cultured in potato dextrose broth medium, and the culture broth was extracted with ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate-soluble portion was concentrated and subjected to ODS column chromatography, followed by Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography. Six compounds (1~6) were purified by preparative reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Spectroscopic methods identified their structures as caffeic acid (1), inotilone (2), 4-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-buten-2-one (3), phellilane H (4), (2E,4E)-(+)-4'-hydroxy-gamma-ionylideneacetic acid (5), and (2E,4E)-gamma-ionylideneacetic acid (6). Compounds 1, 2, and 3 exhibited potent dose-dependent antioxidant activity.

Cloning and expression analysis of Bax inhibitor-1 gene from medicinal fungus Polyporus umbellatus / 中草药

Objective: To clone the Bax inhibitor-1 (BI-1) gene from Polyporus umbellatus and perform the bioinformatics and expression mode analysis. Methods: To clone the full-length cDNA of BI-1 using RACE technology. The characteristics of physiochemical properties, conserved domains, and transmembrane domain of the predicted BI-1 protein were determined using bioinformatic tools. Results: The full-length cDNA of BI-1 gene was 1 091 bp in length and encoded a 334-aa protein with a molecular weight of 36170 and an isoelectric point (pI) of 10.51. The polypeptide chain was a hydrophobin with five hydrophobic regions. The PuBI-1 belonged to basidiomycete group according to the phylogenetic analysis. Real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis revealed that the transcription level of PuBI-1 gene was significantly higher in the beginning and developing stages of sclerotial formation with 3.8 and 7.497 fold over those in the mycelium, but the transcripts decreased sharply with the sclerotial development. Conclusion: Molecular characterization and expression patten of PuBI-1 gene will be useful for the further functional determination of the gene during the development of P. umbellatus sclerotium.

Isolation of high quality RNA from Polyporus umbellatus (Pers. ) Fries

Background: The dried sclerotium of medicinal fungus Polyporus umbellatus (Pers.) Fries has many pharmacological functions such as diuretic and anticancer activity, in which high-content polysaccharides may play an important role. However, RNA isolation is difficult in filamentous fungi and lacking in P. umbellatus. Results: Five methods for RNA extraction from five strains collected from four provinces were assessed for their ability to recover a high-quality RNA applicable for sequence-related amplification polymorphism (SRAP) PCR and GDP-D-mannose pyrophosphorylase (GMP) gene expression profiles. Both A260/A280 and A260/A230 ratios of the best Trizol Plus + RNAiso-mate for Plant Tissue method are around 2 with a yield of 1122.00 +/- 0.21 ng ul-1. The Trizol method also showed good quality with the yield 469.60 ng ul-1. The SRAP PCR amplified clear and polymorphic bands in all five cDNA samples transcribed from RNA by using primer Me4-Em4. GMP gene fragment (1251 bp) was successfully amplified by RT-PCR, suggesting the integrity of isolated RNA. Conclusion: All these results showed that the total RNA isolated by this protocol is of sufficient quality for subsequent molecular applications.

Alterações lipídicas em pacientes com câncer colorretal em fase pós-operatória: ensaio clínico randomizado e duplo-cego com fungos Agaricus sylvaticus / Lipidic alterations in patients with colorectal cancer in post-surgery phase: a randomized and double-blind clinical trial with Agaricus sylvaticus fungus

INTRODUÇÃO: Alterações no metabolismo lipídico são comuns em pacientes com câncer. Fungos medicinais podem exibir atividade hipolipidêmica. OBJETIVO: Avaliar os efeitos da suplementação dietética com fungos Agaricus sylvaticus no perfil lipídico de pacientes com câncer colorretal em fase pós-operatória. MÉTODOS: Ensaio clínico randomizado, duplo-cego, placebo-controlado, realizado no Hospital de Base do Distrito Federal por seis meses. Amostra constituída por 56 pacientes, estádios I, II e III, separados em dois grupos: placebo e suplementado com Agaricus sylvaticus (30mg/kg/dia). Resultados analisados pelos programas Microsoft Excel 2003 e SPSS 14.0 com p = 0.05. RESULTADOS: O grupo Agaricus sylvaticus apresentou níveis séricos iniciais de colesterol total de 207.36±52.67mg/dL, lipoproteína de baixa densidade de 120.79±44.02mg/dL e triglicérides de 181.64±187.52mg/dL. Após seis meses de suplementação, observou-se redução para 191.11±39.72mg/dL (p = 0.01), 103.08±39.20mg/dL (p = 0.0001) e 168.04±146.91mg/dL (p = 0.18), respectivamente. No grupo placebo, observou-se aumento não-significativo de colesterol total (p = 0.08) e aumento significativo de lipoproteína de baixa densidade (p = 0.01) e triglicérides (p = 0.0001). Não foram observadas, em ambos os grupos, alterações significantes nos níveis de lipoproteína de alta densidade e lipoproteína de muito baixa densidade. CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados sugerem que a suplementação dietética com Agaricus sylvaticus pode melhorar significativamente o perfil lipídico de pacientes com câncer colorretal em fase pós-operatória.

INTRODUCTION: Alterations in the lipidic metabolism are common in patients with cancer. Medicinal fungus may show hypolipidemic activity. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with Agaricus sylvaticus fungus in lipidic profile of patients with colorectal cancer in post-surgery phase. MEHTODS: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial carried out at the Federal District Base Hospital, for six months. Samples of 56 enrolled patients, stadiums phase I, II and III, divided in two groups: placebo group and group supplemented with Agaricus sylvaticus (30mg/kg/day). Results were analyzed with Microsoft Excel 2003 and SPSS 14.0 programs, with p = 0.05. RESULTS: The Agaricus sylvaticus group had initial total cholesterol levels of 207.36±52.67mg/dL, low-density lipoprotein of 120.79±44.02mg/dL and triglycerides of 181.64±187.52mg/dL. After six months of supplementation it was observed a reduction 191.11±39.72mg/dL (p = 0.01), 103.08±39.20mg/dL (p = 0.0001) and 168.04±146.91mg/dL (p = 0.18), respectively. In the placebo group it was observed not-significant increase of total cholesterol levels (p = 0.08) and significant increase of low-density lipoprotein (p = 0.01) and triglycerides (p = 0.0001). No significant statistically alterations were observed in the levels of high-density lipoprotein and very-low-density lipoprotein in both groups. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the dietary supplementation with Agaricus sylvaticus may significantly improve the lipidic profile of colorectal cancer patients in post-surgery phase.

The Progress of Biological Research of Medicinal Fungus Shiraia bambusicola / 微生物学通报

The research status is reviewed on taxonomic position, ecology, biological active matter and artificial cultivation of Shiraia bambusicola. Following problems are presented: whether there are new species and host specificity of Shiraia bambusicola. Since the artificial cultivation of stroma of Shiraia bambusicola has not been success, Shiraia bambusicola is in situation of emerge of itself and perish of itself so that it is not beneficial to resource protection and continual utilization of this medicinal fungus. It is pointed out that molecular biology of Shiraia bambusicola should be further researched and technology of artificial cultivation of Shiraia bambusicola should be explored in order to exploit and usage of Shiraia bambusicola.