New look at two wonder mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms have been making news for some time. It used to be that these mushrooms with their plump caps are found on our dining tables almost every meal. But just when this wonder fungus has become old news, a team of NUS researchers has come out with new findings.
The NUS team led by Associate Professor Mary Ng Mah Lee, Department of Microbiology, has developed an extremely effective technique to extract a compound known as lentinan which is responsible for boosting our immune system. The lentinan- induced immunity is able to confer anti-viral as well as anti-cancer properties. The team hopes to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to make the extract into diet supplements to be taken orally. Ideally, it could even be made into a drug after clinical trials.
Said Professor Ng: "We are talking about a pure compound here. We have extracted a compound which is not readily available." She explained that the health supplements sold commonly are mostly shiitake powder but not pure extracts of lentinan. However, it is really the lentinan found most abundantly at the caps that does the trick -- as Professor Ng and her research associate, Dr Yap Ann Teck have found out.
A group of normal mice is fed with lentinan for seven days. Cancer cells were then injected into the mice. They found out that inhibition of tumour was at least 95 per cent in these mice. In another group, mice were induced with tumour and then fed with lentinan. The shrinkage of tumour in this group is about 80 per cent. The effect of lentinan is hence both preventive and healing.
The team is also hoping to patent their new technique which can extract a 100 times more lentinan than the existing method. In Japan, pure extract has been manufactured but is not sold outside the country. Costly, at US$150 per dosage, it is used as an injection to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy in cancer patients and to boost the immune levels of the patients. The NUS researchers' new technique will help to lower cost and can be taken orally.
Golden Needle Mushrooms
Meanwhile, another mushroom is also making news at the Department of Paediatrics. The "Golden Needle" mushroom also helps to increase our immunity to fight allergies, viral infections and cancer. According to Professor Chua Kaw Yan who is researching this mushroom, the stalk of the mushroom contains a large quantity of a protein which interacts with the cells in our immune system resulting in production of a number of cytokines that are responsible for the regulation of our immune functions.
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| 3-D structure of the Golden Needle mushroom immunomodulatory protein: Homodimeric protein with α-helix and IgSF-like fold domain |
Said Prof Chua: "The most important aspect of our research is that we have determined the structure and characterised the functions of an immunomodulatory protein, designated as Five, from the Golden Needle mushroom. Working with the Genome Institute of Singapore, we have isolated the gene encoding for this protein as well as determined its three dimensional structure."
The research team at the Department of Paediatrics has also performed extensive research on the biological and immunological properties of this protein and has demonstrated in animal studies that the unique immunoregulatory properties of this protein can be exploited for the development of pharmaceutical products for preventive and therapeutic vaccines as well as for cancer immunotherapy. A patent has been jointly filed by NUS and A*STAR.
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