Cordyceps militaris getting the job done (Jason Hollinger)

According to Scientists discover how Cordyceps mushrooms fight cancer by S. L. Baker, recent research has made progress in understanding how cordycepin, isolated from Cordyceps fungi (Ascomycota), may act to inhibit the growth and spread of cancer cells:

The University of Nottingham scientists found that the Cordyceps-derived treatment has two important effects on cells that could impact the growth of malignant tumors. At low doses, cordycepin inhibits the uncontrolled growth and division of cells while at high doses it prevents cells from sticking together, essentially blocking the cells from growing.

The original research, CORDYCEPIN INHIBITS PROTEIN SYNTHESIS AND CELL ADHESION THROUGH EFFECTS ON SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and is available as a free PDF. Very cool.

The University of Nottingham published a press release on the research on December 22, 2009.

More on Cordyceps and cordycepin:

New insights into mushroom-derived drug promising for cancer treatment

Cordyceps at wikipedia

Cordyceps information from Sloan-Kettering

Cordyceps militaris at Mushroom Expert

Cordycepin at National Cancer Institute Drug Dictionary

A Melding of Performance Art and Mycological Culture?

It’s a pleasure to come across articles like Subtle Borsato: Artist finds magic in small moments by David Jager. An artist enters Toronto’s Chinatown markets to identify medicinal mushrooms.

“The fun is infectious in The Chinatown Foray, in which she leads members of the Toronto Mycological Society through the stalls of Chinatown grocery stores and Markham medicinal shops to identify different mushrooms.”

Indonesian Oyster Mushroom Entrepreneurs

Local residents strike gold with oyster mushrooms appears at the Jakarta Post.
“Oyster mushrooms are commonly cultivated across Asia, particularly in China and South Korea, for consumption. In addition to being a popular food, oyster mushrooms are also considered to have medicinal properties because of their high levels of statins, such as lovastatin, which work to reduce cholesterol levels. In the backyard of his house, Putu has built a small bamboo shed to grow the oyster mushrooms. He bought 1,000 logs which he inoculates with mushroom spawn. He says he was so happy the first time he saw the mushrooms grow healthily in less than a month.”

Button Mushroom on the Medicinal Radar

I’ve seen several references recently to increased research interest in your grocery store variety button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus). One of note is Study Finds Breast Cancer Fighting Properties within Mushrooms.

“Dr. Chen and her team state: “Results from this and other laboratories support the hypothesis that white button mushrooms may be an important dietary constituent for reducing the incidence of hormone-dependent breast cancer in women. Prevention strategies involving mushrooms are readily available, affordable, and acceptable to the general public.”

Shiitake in India

According to Medicinal mushrooms grow in Himachal, farmers have started growing Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) having medicinal qualities at Solan in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Cordyceps Against the Flu?

That is implied by some of the statements in Super-mushrooms are natural way to fight flu by one Dr. Gifford-Jones.

“Investigation shows that some imported mushroom preparations from China contain only rice flour and nutmeg. Others produced in the U.S. were found to have few of the active ingredients required to increase immunity. What these preparations should have contained was a mushroom called Cordyceps sinensis, one of a group of powerful fungi. A natural mushroom product called ImmuneAssist 24/7 has been developed by a U.S. nutraceutical company. ImmuneAssist 24/7 is prepared by a method called “hybridization” and contains Cordyceps sinensis, plus five other super-mushrooms. Hybridization isn’t the same as genetic modifications, such as cloning. Rather, it’s a traditional method of crossbreeding mushrooms to enhance their natural immune-stimulating powers.”

Wolf on Mushrooms

Here’s my lone find with Bing. Maybe you have heard of David Wolfe but I hadn’t up until now. This is a fairly recent video of his about medicinal mushrooms. He sounds somewhat knowledgeable and partially whack.

Although fungi produce secondary metabolites in response to environmental queues, Oakley’s team has found a way to elicit a metabolic response in the laboratory by activating certain genes. They discovered that the production of some secondary metabolites is regulated at the chromatin level, and that metabolites can be produced that normally would not appear in lab culture.

The information in this post was compiled from the following resources:

KU Researcher Finds Fungi Compounds Have Potential as Treatment for Diseases

Fungi Found to Destroy Dividing Cancer Cells

According to Damian Krysan, assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center ,“We don’t have vaccines against fungal infections and the few drugs we do have aren’t always effective. We’ve got a lot more work to do to figure out whether tamoxifen could be used in high doses or whether it could be used in combination with other treatments, but we’re excited about the possibility of giving doctors another way to help these critically ill patients.”

If you snoop around Simoncini’s site and a few others you’ll even find some links to “research.” Some of the links actually do lead to research—which is quite surprising. What’s not surprising is that none of the research supports the notion that cancer is a fungus.

I hope you never have to make the choice between slugging down doses of bicarbonate (which probably doesn’t hurt) and more traditional treatment options. Me? I’d look into the CyberKnife.

Don’t get me wrong—I have an open mind. I’ll even grant that weird ideas can turn out to have merit. Some theories just don’t pass the reasonableness test though. Know what I mean? Think I’m wrong on this? Let me know.