Rare insect-eating mushrooms show potential for developing new antivirals and cancer treatments

Scientists studying the medicinal properties of rare insect-eating mushrooms have discovered a way to grow the elusive fungus in the lab, paving the way for the development of new antiviral and cancer drugs.

of cordyceps Mushrooms are best known for their fearsome diet. Famously, its spores infect and kill insects, growing into full-fledged fruiting bodies that germinate from the insect’s flesh.However cordyceps It also has important medicinal potential, including the bioactive compound cordycepin, which may be developed into powerful new antiviral and anticancer agents. cordyceps However, her team, including Chungbuk National University Professor Mi Kyeong Lee and Dr. Ayman Turk, today The forefront of microbiologydiscovered a way to grow these elusive fungi in controlled settings without losing their potency.

Cordycepin is one of the cytotoxic nucleoside analogues with complementary therapeutic activities in antiproliferative and antimetastatic cancer cells. Moreover, recent findings strongly encourage preclinical and clinical studies of cordycepin for comprehensive treatment of Covid-19. “

Dr. Mi Kyeong Lee, Senior Author of the Study

find the right food

The usual, cordyceps It is grown in a laboratory with grains such as brown rice. However, scientists noticed that the levels of cordycepin were very low when taken. cordyceps Grown on grains, I suspected that the protein content of grains was not high enough to be eaten simply. cordycepsGiven cordycepin’s high potential, Lee and her colleagues were keen to find ways to help them grow healthier and stronger. cordyceps In the laboratory, we synthesize high-level bioactive compounds for medical research. They considered edible insects as an alternative growth medium. cordycepsbut because different insects provide different nutrients, they also investigated which commercially available edible insects provided the best diet for mushrooms.

Cultured using crickets, silkworm pupae, mealworms, grasshoppers, tree frog larvae, and beetles. cordyceps We then harvested and investigated the results. There were marked differences between the various entomophagy. cordyceps It grew the most in mealworm and silkworm pupae, and less in chafer larvae and grasshoppers. Still, the greatest growth did not necessarily correlate with the higher levels of cordycepin that Dr. Lee and her team sought. cordyceps Silkworms raised on Japanese beetles produced the highest levels of cordycepin, 34 times the levels produced by pupae of the poorest performing silkworms.

“cordyceps Cordycepin cultivated with edible insects cordyceps With brown rice,” Lee said.

Fattening cordyceps Up

Studies have shown that the key to cordycepin production is the fat content of insects, not the protein, but specifically the high levels of oleic acid required for cordycepin synthesis. Supplementation with oleic acid improved the production of cordycepin in the body. cordyceps We grew 50% on that.

“Our study convincingly demonstrates a potential strategy for promoting cordycepin production in growth. cordyceps Using insects with a high oleic acid content,” Lee said.

with potential for treatment cordyceps Although the mushroom is complicated by the difficulty of producing cordycepin in the laboratory, these results give hope to researchers looking for new drugs to combat this devastating disease. know what to give people cordyceps That means we can harness their power in drug discovery to find the drugs of the future.

“The cultivation method of cordyceps As suggested in this study, it allows for more efficient and economical production of cordycepin. However, securing edible insects is not yet sufficient for scale-up to the industrial level. It needs to be substantiated by further research.”