Title:Mycotherapy of Cancer: An Update on Cytotoxic and Antitumor Activities of Mushrooms, Bioactive Principles and Molecular Mechanisms of their Action
Volume: 13
Issue: 21
Author(s): Visnja Popovic, Jelena Zivkovic, Slobodan Davidovic, Milena Stevanovic and Dejan Stojkovic
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Antitumor properties, compounds, extracts, molecular mechanisms, mushrooms.
Abstract: 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.
