Anticancer Effects of Taiwanofungus camphoratus Extracts, Isolated Compounds and its Combinational use Ying-Chen Chen, Hsio-O Ho, Chin-Hua Su, Ming-Thau Sheu
Taiwanofungus camphoratus is an indigenous mushroom in Taiwan, which has been used as a traditional medicine to treat many health-related problems. Several biological activities have been reported on T. camphoratus ranging from anti-inflammatory antihypertension to anticancer and so on. Cancer is a major cause of death in Taiwan, and unfortunately, there is no satisfied treatment presently. Thus, a review article about the anticancer effect of T. camphoratus would be a great importance. This article reviews anticancer activities being performed with crude extracts and isolated compounds from T. camphoratus and their synergistic effects. The source of T. camphoratus might be from its fruiting bodies, mycelia, and fermented culture broth and be extracted from water, methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, or chloroform, which showed versatile anticancer activities. In addition, various compounds have been further purified from these extracts, such as terpenoids, maleic and succinic acids derivatives, polysaccharides, and other compounds, and they also showed potent cytotoxicity. Besides, T. camphoratus not only has cytotoxic effect but also produces synergistic anticancer effect with trichostatin A, lovastatin, and taxol. It is concluded that T. camphoratus could be considered as a potential anticancer agent to make cancer no longer a frightening nightmare. However, clinical trials of T. camphoratus on human subjects are absent, and the involved mechanism remains unclear. Hence, further investigations would be required.
Apoptotic Cell Death and Inhibition of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway in Human Colon Cancer Cells by an Active Fraction (HS7) from Taiwanofungus camphoratus Chi-Tai Yeh,1,2,3 Chih-Jung Yao,2,4 Jiann-Long Yan,5 Shuang-En Chuang,5 Liang-Ming Lee,4 Chien-Ming Chen,1 Chuan-Feng Yeh,5 Chi-Han Li,5 and Gi-Ming Lai1,2,4,5
1Cancer Center, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 235, Taiwan 2Center of Excellence for Cancer Research, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan 3Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan 4Cancer Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 116, Taiwan 5National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 350, Taiwan
Abstract
Aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays an important role in the development of colon cancer. HS7 is an active fraction extracted from Taiwanofungus camphoratus, which had been widely used as complementary medicine for Taiwan cancer patients in the past decades. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of HS7 on the growth inhibition, apoptosis induction, and Wnt/β-catenin signaling suppression in human colon cancer cells. HS7 significantly inhibited proliferation of HT29, HCT116, and SW480 colon cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The apoptosis induction was evidenced by DNA fragmentation and subG1 accumulation, which was associated with increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, activation of caspase-3 and cleavage of PARP. By using Tcf-dependent luciferase activity assay, HS7 was found to inhibit the β-catenin/Tcf transcriptional activities. In addition, HS7 strongly suppressed the binding of Tcf complexes to its DNA-binding site shown in electrophoretic mobility shift assay. This inhibition was further confirmed by the decreased protein levels of Tcf-4 and β-catenin. The β-catenin/Tcf downstream target genes, such as survivin, c-myc, cyclin D1, MMP7, and MT1-MMP involved in apoptosis, invasion, and angiogenesis were also diminished as well. These results indicate that Taiwanofungus camphoratus may provide a benefit as integrative medicine for the treatment of colon cancer.
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