Two genes controlling acute phase responses by the antitumor polysacch aride, lentinan

Immunomodulating Effects of Fungal Beta-Glucans: From Traditional Use to Medicine

The importance of a well-functioning and balanced immune system has become more apparent in recent decades. Various elements have however not yet been uncovered as shown, for example, in the uncertainty on immune system responses to COVID-19. Fungal beta-glucans are bioactive molecules with immunomodulating properties. Insights into the effects and function of beta-glucans, which have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, advances with the help of modern immunological and biotechnological methods. However, it is still unclear into which area beta-glucans fit best: supplements or medicine? This review has highlighted the potential application of fungal beta-glucans in nutrition and medicine, reviewing their formulation, efficacy, safety profile, and immunomodulating effects. The current status of dietary fungal glucans with respect to the European scientific requirements for health claims related to the immune system and defense against pathogens has been reviewed. Comparing the evidence base of the putative health effects of fungal beta-glucan supplements with the published guidance documents by EFSA on substantiating immune stimulation and pathogen defense by food products shows that fungal beta-glucans could play a role in supporting and maintaining health and, thus, can be seen as a good health-promoting substance from food, which could mean that this effect may also be claimed if approved. In addition to these developments related to food uses of beta-glucan-containing supplements, beta-glucans could also hold a novel position in Western medicine as the concept of trained immunity is relatively new and has not been investigated to a large extent. These innovative concepts, together with the emerging success of modern immunological and biotechnological methods, suggest that fungal glucans may play a promising role in both perspectives, and that there are possibilities for traditional medicine to provide an immunological application in both medicine and nutrition.

Cultivation of Medicinal Mushroom Biomass by Solid-State Bioprocessing in Bioreactors

Basidiomycetes of various species and their wide range of pharmaceutically interesting products in the last decades represent one of the most attractive groups of natural products in Asia and North America. Production of fungal fruit bodies using farming technology is hardly covering the market. Comprehensive solid-state technologies and bioreactors are the most promising part for fast and large amount of cultivation of medicinal fungi biomass and its pharmaceutically active products. Wood, agriculture, and food industry wastes represent the main substrates that are in this process delignified and enriched in proteins and highly valuable pharmaceutically active compounds. Research in physiology, basic and applied studies in fungal metabolism, process engineering aspects, and clinical studies in the last two decades represent large contribution to the development of these potentials that initiate the development of new drugs and some of the most attractive over-the-counter human and veterinary remedies. Present article is an overview of the achievements in solid-state technology of the most relevant medicinal mushroom species production in bioreactors. Graphical Abstract.

Mapping behavioural evolution onto brain evolution: the strategic roles of conserved organization in individuals and species

The pattern of individual variation in brain component structure in pigs, minks and laboratory mice is very similar to variation across species in the same components, at a reduced scale. This conserved pattern of allometric scaling resembles robotic architectures designed to be robust to changes in computing power and task demands, and may reflect the mechanism by which both growing and evolving brains defend basic sensory, motor and homeostatic functions at multiple scales. Conserved scaling rules also have implications for species-specific sensory and social communication systems, motor competencies and cognitive abilities. The role of relative changes in neuron number in the central nervous system in producing species-specific behaviour is thus highly constrained, while changes in the sensory and motor periphery, and in motivational and attentional systems increase in probability as the principal loci producing important changes in functional neuroanatomy between species. By their nature, these loci require renewed attention to development and life history in the initial organization and production of species-specific behavioural abilities.

Measurement of blood clearance time by Limulus G test of Candida-water soluble polysaccharide fraction, CAWS, in mice

The Limulus G test, responsive to beta-1,3-D-glucan, is a well-established method for the detection of invasive fungal infection. We have recently found that Candida albicans released a water-soluble polysaccharide fraction (CAWS) into synthetic medium (Uchiyama et al., FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 24 (1999) 411-420). CAWS was composed of a mannoprotein-beta-glucan complex and activated Limulus factor G, and thus would be similar to the Limulus active substance in patient's blood. In a preliminary investigation, we have found that CAWS is lethal when administered intravenously in a murine system. In this study, we examined the toxicity and then the fate of CAWS in mice. The lethal toxicity was strain-dependent and strain DBA/2 was the most resistant. The toxicity was, at least in part, reduced by salbutamol sulfate and prednisolone treatment in the sensitive strains. On intravenous administration, the half clearance time (t1/2) was approximately 40 min in mice (DBA/2). On intraperitoneal administration, CAWS appeared in the blood with a peak concentration at 1 h. In order to establish a treatment plan, it is important to demonstrate the onset and the termination of deep-seated mycosis. The Limulus G test is suitable for the above purpose; however, it is necessary to fully understand the fate of beta-1,3-D-glucan in patients' blood.

Blood cells and plasma proteins of chickens fed a diet supplemented with (1-->3),(1-->6)-beta-D-glucan and enrofloxacin

The effects of (1-->3),(1-->6)-beta-D-glucan from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and of the fluochinolone enrofloxacin were studied on red and white blood cells and plasma proteins of growing chickens up to the 35th day of life. The prominent findings within the leukocyte population on a per cent scale are: (i) increase of leukocyte count; increase of neutrophils and decrease of lymphocytes in the control and in the antibiotic group from day 17 to day 35; (ii) a minor decrease of neutrophils and no change of lymphocytes in the glucan group; (iii) the monocytes increase from 2.5 +/- 1.8% to 6.5 +/- 7.6% in the glucan group; (iv) the basophils increase in the control group and scale down in the other groups from day 17 to day 35. The total count of leukocytes increases in the controls and in the glucan group. The total protein content of blood plasma, beta-globulin and gamma-globulin increase and the albumin-globulin-ratio and alpha-globulin decline during chickens growth. These changes are most prominent in the glucan group. The haemoglobin concentration shows in all three dietary groups a highly significant increase from day 17 to day 35 by about 17 to 27 per cent; no changes are seen in packed cell volume and number of erythrocytes per litre blood.

Identification of 40 genes on a 1-Mb contig around the IL-4 cytokine family gene cluster on mouse chromosome 11

Five related cytokine genes, interleukin 3 (Il3), interleukin 4 (Il4), interleukin 5 (Il5), interleukin 13 (Il13), and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (Csfgm or Csf2), are tightly linked on mouse chromosome 11. We now describe a 1-Mb transcript map of this cytokine cluster. Genomic clones obtained by screening mouse bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) and P1-derived artificial chromosome (PAC) libraries were subcloned into the pSPL3 expression vector and transfected into COS7 cells for exon trapping. In total, 118 distinct, putative exons were sequenced and characterized, mapping up to 29 distinct genes to the mouse cluster, including Il4 and Csf2. Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses indicate that all of these genes are expressed. Analysis of 1 Mb of published sequence from the region of conserved synteny on human chromosome 5q31-q33 identified 45 gene candidates, including 35 expressed genes in the human IL-4 cytokine gene cluster. Probes for 20 human genes were tested for cross-hybridization to murine BAC and PAC clones, thereby mapping 11 additional genes to the mouse complex. Thus, a total of 40 genes including 6 cytokine genes have been physically mapped within 1 Mb of mouse chromosome 11. Gene order in this complex is similar, but not identical, between human and mouse. The integrated physical and transcript maps should prove valuable as a complement to genomic sequencing and expression-dependent transcript maps of this segment of the genome.

Therapeutic intervention with complement and beta-glucan in cancer

Complement (C) has two major effector systems available for host defense. The membrane attack complex (MAC) generated from components C5-C9 can form membrane-penetrating lesions that lead to cell death by causing a rapid loss of cytoplasmic components. The MAC is only effective against pathogens with outer phospholipid membranes, and cannot kill gram-positive bacteria or yeast whose membranes are protected by cell walls. The most important effector mechanism of C is the opsonization of microbial pathogens with the serum protein C3 that leads to their high avidity attachment to the C3-receptors of phagocytic cells. Pathogens that activate complement are first coated with the C3b fragment of C3, which is rapidly proteolyzed into the iC3b fragment by serum factor I. These iC3b fragments serve to promote the high avidity attachment of the 'iC3b-opsonized' pathogens to the iC3b-receptors (CR3, CD11b/CD18) of phagocytic cells and natural killer (NK) cells, stimulating phagocytosis and/or cytotoxic degranulation. Host cells, including neoplastic tumor cells, have been endowed with natural mechanisms for self-protection against both the MAC and the cytotoxic activation of CR3. This review discusses a novel type of immunotherapy for cancer that uses soluble yeast beta-glucan to override the normal resistance of iC3b-opsonized tumor cells to the cytotoxic activation of phagocyte and NK cell CR3, allowing this important effector mechanism of the C system to function against tumor cells in the same way that it normally functions against bacteria and yeast. Moreover, the cytotoxic activation of beta-glucan-primed NK cell CR3 by iC3b-opsonized tumors is shown to be accompanied by a tumor-localized secretion of the cytokines TNFalpha, IFNalpha, IFNgamma, and IL-6.

Polygenic control of the expression of biological activities of an antitumor polysaccharide, lentinan

Genetic studies were carried out on two in vivo responses of lentinan, delayed type-acute phase responses (DT-APR) and vascular dilation and hemorrhage (VDH). Linkage analyses showed that DT-APR was controlled by two recessive genes, ltnr1 and ltnr2, which were mapped on chromosome 3 and 11, respectively. VDH was also found to be controlled by polygenes. One dominant major gene, Ltnr3, and three dominant minor genes, Ltnr4, Ltnr5, and Ltnr6, were mapped on chromosomes 6, 9, 15 and 16, respectively.

Curdlan sulphate modulates protein synthesis and enhances NF-kappaB and C/EBP binding activity in HepG2 cells

In human hepatoma HepG2 cell line curdlan sulphate enhances basal and interleukin-6-stimulated fibrinogen and antichymotrypsin (ACT) synthesis, slightly increases basal ceruloplasmin production and exerts only minor effects on alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor and transferrin. Curdlan sulphate may, at least in part, affect protein synthesis at a pretranslational level, as the expression of ACT mRNA was found to be increased, whereas intracellular enzyme, manganese superoxide dismutase mRNA level was decreased in the cell culture treated with curdlan sulphate. Gel mobility shift analysis revealed that curdlan sulphate increases the DNA binding activity of NF-kappaB and C/EBP, suggesting that these transcription factors may participate in the regulatory effects of curdlan sulphate in HepG2 cells.