Medicinal mushrooms have documented effects against different diseases, including infections and inflammatory disorders.
The related Basidiomycota Agaricus blazei Murill (AbM), Hericium erinaceus (HE), and Grifola frondosa (GF) have been shown to exert antimicrobial activity against viral agents, Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria, and parasites in vitro and in vivo.
Since the mechanism is immunomodulatory and not
antibiotical, the mushrooms should be active against multi‐drug resistant microbes as well. Moreover, since
these Basidiomycota also
have anti‐inflammatory
properties, they may be suited for treatment of the severe lung inflammation
that often follows COVID‐19
infection.
Immunomodulating β‐glucans constitute the main part of the cell wall in fungi, including Agaricus blazei Murill (AbM), Hericium erinaceus (HE), and Grifola frondosa (GF).
Such polysaccharides have been found to have anticancer and anti‐infection effects when given in mouse models.
Previously, it was proved that, yeast β‐glucan given orally can protect against systemic S. pneumoniae infection in mice.
In the current situation with a seemingly non‐curable pandemic at hand and where candidate drugs and vaccines just are in the testing stage, one must look at alternative prophylactic and therapeutic principles.
One candidate is immune prophylaxis and/ or therapy by use of immunomodulatory mushrooms.
The Agaricomycota among the Bacidiomycetes mushrooms,
AbM, HE and GF, are well‐known
medicinal mushrooms that have been used worldwide for a range of diseases in
traditional medicine.
In fact, many of those applications have been confirmed in preclinical and clinical studies. Focus has especially been on antitumour effects where cytotoxicity and apoptotic mechanism have been revealed.
However, in addition to an anti‐inflammatory property, the mushrooms have also been found
to induce enhanced Th1 cellular immune response, as demonstrated by increase in
IFNγ, IL‐2 and IL‐12 cytokines.
Comments
Post a Comment