Inhibitory Mechanisms of CME-1, a Novel Polysaccharide from the Mycelia of Cordyceps sinensis, in Platelet Activation

Cordyceps: Alleviating ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular injury - A comprehensive review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Cordyceps has a long medicinal history as a nourishing herb in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Ischemic cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs), including cerebral ischemic/reperfusion injury (CI/RI) and myocardial ischemic/reperfusion injury (MI/RI), are major contributors to mortality and disability in humans. Numerous studies have indicated that Cordyceps or its artificial substitutes have significant bioactivity on ischemic CCVDs, however, there is a lack of relevant reviews.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This review was conducted to investigate the chemical elements, pharmacological effects, clinical application and drug safety of Cordycepson ischemic CCVDs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comprehensive search was conducted on the Web of Science, PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang databases using the keywords "Cordyceps", "Cerebral ischemic/reperfusion injury", and "Myocardial ischemic/reperfusion injury" or their synonyms. The retrieved literature was then categorized and summarized.

RESULTS

The study findings indicated that Cordyceps and its bioactive components, including adenosine, cordycepin, mannitol, polysaccharide, and protein, have the potential to protect against CI/RI and MI/RI by improving blood perfusion, mitigating damage from reactive oxygen species, suppressing inflammation, preventing cellular apoptosis, and promoting tissue regeneration. Individually, Cordyceps could reduce neuronal excitatory toxicity and blood-brain barrier damage caused by cerebral ischemia. It can also significantly improve cardiac energy metabolism disorders and inhibit calcium overload caused by myocardial ischemia. Additionally, Cordyceps exerts a significant preventive or curative influence on the factors responsible for heart/brain ischemia, including hypertension, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, and arrhythmia.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates Cordyceps' prospective efficacy and safety in the prevention or treatment of CI/RI and MI/RI, providing novel insights for managing ischemic CCVDs.

Mechanism of Cordyceps sinensis and its Extracts in the Treatment of Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Review

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the major reason of chronic kidney disease (CKD)-caused end-stage renal failure (ESRF), and leads to high mortality worldwide. At present, the treatment of DKD is mainly focused on controlling the hyperglycemia, proteinuria, and hypertension, but is insufficient on the effective delay of DKD progression. Cordyceps sinensis is a kind of wild-used precious Chinese herb. Its extracts have effects of nephroprotection, hepatoprotection, neuroprotection, and protection against ischemia/reperfusion-induced injury, as well as anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activities. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, Cordyceps sinensis can tonify the lung and the kidney. Several Chinese patent medicines produced from Cordyceps sinensis are often used to treat DKD and achieved considerable efficacy. This review summarized the clinical usage of Cordyceps sinensis, as well as its mainly biological activities including anti-hyperglycemic, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, anti-oxidant, anti-fibrotic activities and regulation of apoptosis.

Endogenous bacteria inhabiting the Ophiocordyceps highlandensis during fruiting body development

Background

The genus Ophiocordyceps, which includes Ophiocordyceps sinensis, has been demonstrated to be one of the most valuable medicinal taxa. The low rate of larval infection and slow development that characterize the cultivation of this genus should be urgently addressed. To identify potential bioinoculants that stimulate the growth of Ophiocordyceps, O. highlandensis was selected as a model system, and a total of 72 samples were collected to systematically compare the microbial communities present during fruiting body development. By applying high-throughput 16S and ITS2 amplicon sequencing technology, the bacterial and fungal communities were identified in O. highlandensis and its surrounding soil, and the functional dynamics of the bacteria were explored.

Results

The results indicate that the most abundant bacteria across all the samples from O. highlandensis were Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, while members of Ascomycota were detected among the fungi. The pathways enriched in the developmental stages were associated with carbohydrate degradation, nucleotides and pyridoxal biosynthesis, and the TCA cycle. Compared with that in the fungal community, an unexpectedly high taxonomic and functional fluctuation was discovered in the bacterial community during the maturation of O. highlandensis. Furthermore, bipartite network analysis identified four potential supercore OTUs associated with O. highlandensis growth.

Conclusions

All the findings of this study suggest unexpectedly high taxonomic and functional fluctuations in the bacterial community of O. highlandensis during its maturation. O. highlandensis may recruit different endogenous bacteria across its life cycle to enhance growth and support rapid infection. These results may facilitate Ophiocordyceps cultivation and improve the development of strategies for the identification of potential bioinoculant resources.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-021-02227-w.

Antiplatelet agents for cancer treatment: a real perspective or just an echo from the past?

The association between coagulation and cancer development has been observed for centuries. However, the connection between inflammation and malignancy is also well-recognized. The plethora of evidence indicates that among multiple hemostasis components, platelets play major roles in cancer progression by providing surface and granular contents for several interactions as well as behaving like immune cells. Therefore, the anticancer potential of anti-platelet therapy has been intensively investigated for many years. Anti-platelet agents may prevent cancer, decrease tumor growth, and metastatic potential, as well as improve survival of cancer patients. On the other hand, there are suggestions that antiplatelet treatment may promote solid tumor development in a phenomenon described as "cancers follow bleeding." The controversies around antiplatelet agents justify insight into the subject to establish what, if any, role platelet-directed therapy has in the continuum of anticancer management.

Structure-activity relationship of three synthesized benzimidazole-based oligosaccharides in human platelet activation

Antiplatelet agents have considerable benefits in the treatment of thromboembolic diseases; however, these agents still have substantial limitations due to their severe side-effects. In this study, the antiplatelet activity of three newly synthesized saccharide based benzimidazole derivatives, M3BIM, Malto-BIM and Melibio-BIM, in collagen and thrombin-stimulated human platelets in vitro was examined. Among the compounds tested, only compound M3BIM exerted concentration (20-60 µM)-dependent inhibitory effects against collagen (1 µg/ml) and thrombin (0.01 U/ml)-induced washed human platelet aggregation. Moreover, at a concentration of 60 µM, M3BIM distinctly abolished collagen-induced adenosine triphosphate (ATP) release and intracellular Ca2+ mobilization. Additionally, this compound attenuated the collagen-induced phosphorylation of p47, a marker of the activation of protein kinase C (PKC) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). However, Malto-BIM and Melibio-BIM were not effective in this regard. Moreover, the toxic effects of these compounds were evaluated using zebrafish embryo toxicity (ZET) assay, and the results revealed that all three compounds had no comparative cytotoxicity within the range of 25-200 µM. Overall, the results of this study provide evidence for the inhibitory effects of M3BIM on collagen-induced platelet aggregation in vitro compared to other imidazole derivatives. The presence of 1-imidazolyl moiety at one end with a longer chain length (three sugar moieties) may be mainly responsible for the observed effects of M3BIM. These results suggest that compound M3BIM may be used as a potential candidate for the treatment of aberrant platelet activation-related diseases as it inhibits the activation of p47 and p38 MAPK, and reduces ATP release and Ca2+ mobilization.

Profiling metals in Cordyceps sinensis by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Cordyceps sinensis (C. sinensis) is a natural product that has diverse nutritional and medicinal values. Since the availability of natural C. sinensis becomes limited its authentication and quality control is of high significance. Herein we report on profiling of metals in C. sinensis by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The analysis reveals that C. sinensis contains a wide array of essential elements, including P, Mg, Zn, Cu, Fe, etc. Toxic metals detected are Cd, Pb, and As. In all five samples analyzed Pb contents are below 2.0 ppm. Arsenic level in C. sinensis caterpillar is significantly higher than that in its mycelium and varies from 3.0 to 32 ppm likely due to soil contamination. It's for the first time demonstrated in this work that clustering analysis on the proposed metal profiles consisting of 24 elements is very useful to identify "abnormal" C. sinensis samples, thus adding another dimension to the effective means for authentication and quality assessment of this highly demanded previous natural product.

The Mechanisms of Pharmacological Activities of Ophiocordyceps sinensis Fungi

The entomopathogenic fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis, formerly known as Cordyceps sinensis, has long been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of many illnesses. In recent years its usage has increased dramatically because of the improvement of people's living standard and the emphasis on health. Such demands have resulted in over-harvesting of this fungus in the wild. Fortunately, scientists have demonstrated that artificially cultured and fermented mycelial products of O. sinensis have similar pharmacological activities to wild O. sinensis. The availability of laboratory cultures will likely to further expand its usage for the treatment of various illnesses. In this review, we summarize recent results on the pharmacological activities of the components of O. sinensis and their putative mechanisms of actions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.