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Owing to their nutritional, culinary, and nutraceutical, mushrooms are worldwide consumed and appreciated. Moreover, many of these mushrooms are also known as medicinal mushrooms since they possess several pharmacological properties attributable to a huge number of bioactive compounds derived from their sporophores. Several studies are available in the literature about in vitro and in vivo mechanisms of actions of such bioactive compounds. Most of these surveys are focused on macrofungi belonging to the genera Pleurotus, Ganoderma, or specific taxa such as Agaricus bisporus, Agaricus blazei, Boletus eduliInonotus obliquus, Hericium erinaceus, Lentinula edodes, and Grifola frondose. On the other hand, there is a lack of information on the under investigated ecological group of freshwater fungi. These fungi play a very important role in freshwater environments and some of them, belonging to Basidiomycota, are also edible and largely consumed. In this review we collected information about the medicinal properties of freshwater macro- and micromycetes. Among them, macrofungi, such as Amanita vaginata, Armillaria mellea, Armillaria tabescens, Astraeus hygrometricus, Auricularia auricula-judae, Bjerkandera adusta, Bovista nigrescens, Calocybe gambosa, Candolleomyces candolleanus, Collybia dryophila, Coprinus comatus, Cyclocybe cylindracea, Hypsizygus ulmarius, Inonotus hispidus, Lactarius controversus, Lentinus tigrinus, and Schizophyllum commune, observed in riparian habitat, and microfungi, such as Penicillium aculeatum, P. chrysogenum, and Fusarium incarnatum, isolated from aquatic plants, have been reported to have antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antidiabetic, immunomoludatory, hypoglycaemic, and other pharmaceutical activities. Such fungal species are noteworthy since they represent an important quote of biodiversity to preserve their fundamental ecological role and a possible solution for different health problems for humans and animal farms. Full article

Mushrooms contain multiple essential nutrients and health-promoting bioactive compounds, including the amino acid L-ergothioneine. Knowledge of the chemical composition of different mushroom varieties will aid research on their health-promoting properties. We compared the metabolomes of fresh raw white button, crimini, portabella, lion’s mane, maitake, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms using untargeted liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS)-based metabolomics. We also quantified amino acid concentrations, including L-ergothioneine, a potential antioxidant which is not synthesized by plants or animals. Among the seven mushroom varieties, more than 10,000 compounds were detected. Principal Component Analysis indicated mushrooms of the same species, Agaricus Bisporus (white button, portabella, crimini), group similarly. The other varieties formed individual, distinct clusters. A total of 1344 (520 annotated) compounds were detected in all seven mushroom varieties. Each variety had tens-to-hundreds of unique-to-mushroom-variety compounds. These ranged from 29 for crimini to 854 for lion’s mane. All three Agaricus bisporus varieties had similar amino acid profiles (including detection of all nine essential amino acids), while other varieties had less methionine and tryptophan. Lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms had the highest concentrations of L-ergothioneine. The detection of hundreds of unique-to-mushroom-variety compounds emphasizes the differences in chemical composition of these varieties of edible fungi. Full article

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver malignancy and remains a global health threat. The objective of the current study was to determine whether the combination of a cold-water extracted polysaccharide-protein complex from Grifolia frondosa (GFG) and cyclophosphamide (CTX) could inhibit tumor growth by suppressing the expression of angiogenesis-related proteins in H22 tumor-bearing mice. The results showed that the inhibition rate of GFG combined with CTX on H22 tumors was 65.29%, which was significantly higher than that of GFG treatment alone (24.82%). GFG combined with CTX significantly increased the expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, matrix metalloproteinase 2, and matrix metalloproteinase 9. Additionally, thymus index, spleen index, natural killer (NK) cell activity, interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels increased significantly after GFG treatment, especially after high-doses of GFG combined with CTX treatment (p < 0.05). The thymus index, spleen index, NK cell activity, IFN-γ, IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-2 levels were 1.90, 1.46, 1.30, 2.13, 1.64, 2.03, and 1.24 times of those treated with CTX alone. Thus, we proposed that GFG can alleviate the side effects of CTX by relieving the immunosuppressive effect, liver/renal injury, and oxidative stress. In conclusion, the combination of GFG and CTX for cancer treatment may be a promising strategy, and GFG is expected to be a potential adjuvant alternative for the treatment of HCC. Full article

Carbohydrates, including polysaccharide macromolecules, are the main constituents of the fungal cell wall. Among these, the homo- or heteropolymeric glucan molecules are decisive, as they not only protect fungal cells but also have broad, positive biological effects on the animal and human bodies. In addition to the beneficial nutritional properties of mushrooms (mineral elements, favorable proteins, low fat and energy content, pleasant aroma, and flavor), they have a high glucan content. Folk medicine (especially in the Far East) used medicinal mushrooms based on previous experience. At the end of the 19th century, but mainly since the middle of the 20th century, progressively more scientific information has been published. Glucans from mushrooms are polysaccharides that contain sugar chains, sometimes of only one kind (glucose), sometimes having several monosaccharide units, and they have two (α and β) anomeric forms (isomers). Their molecular weights range from 10⁴ to 10⁵ Da, and rarely 10⁶ Da. X-ray diffraction studies were the first to determine the triple helix configuration of some glucans. It seems that the existence and integrity of the triple helix structure are criteria for their biological effects. Different glucans can be isolated from different mushroom species, and several glucan fractions can be obtained. The biosynthesis of glucans takes place in the cytoplasm, the processes of initiation and then chain extension take place with the help of the glucan synthase enzyme complex (EC 2.4.1.34), and the sugar units are provided by sugar donor UDPG molecules. The two methods used today for glucan determination are the enzymatic and Congo red methods. True comparisons can only be made using the same method. Congo red dye reacts with the tertiary triple helix structure, and the resulting glucan content better reflects the biological value of glucan molecules. The biological effect of β-glucan molecules is proportional to the integrity of the tertiary structure. The glucan contents of the stipe exceed the values of the caps. The glucan levels of individual fungal taxa (including varieties) differ quantitatively and qualitatively. This review presents in more detail the glucans of lentinan (from Lentinula edodes), pleuran (from Pleurotus ostreatus), grifolan (from Grifola frondose), schizophyllan (from Schizophyllum commune), and krestin (from Trametes versicolor), along with their main biological effects. Full article