MEDICINAL MUSHROOM BIOACTIVES: POTENTIAL SOURCES FOR ANTI-CANCER DRUG DEVELOPMENT

Mushrooms represent a major yet largely untapped source of therapeutically useful bioactive compounds. Despite mushrooms were in use since antiquity in traditional folk medicine attempts to isolate their bioactive components and to elucidate their medicinal properties have started only recently. Many pharmaceutical substances with unique properties were recently extracted from mushrooms and made their way all over the world. A number of medicinal mushrooms have been identified to possess anticancer effects recently. Some of the well-known examples are Lentinan from Lentinus edodes, Krestin from Trametes versicolor, Ganopoly from Ganoderma lucidum and Schizophyllan from Schizophyllum commune. We investigated the anticancer activities of a number of medicinal mushrooms in our laboratory. Some of the recent scientific evdences on the anticancer activities of Ganoderma lucidum, Phellinus rimosus, and Fomitopsis pinicola are discussed in this short review

Comparative analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) between drought-tolerant and -susceptible genotypes of chickpea under terminal drought stress

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chickpea (<it>Cicer arietinum </it>L.) is an important grain-legume crop that is mainly grown in rainfed areas, where terminal drought is a major constraint to its productivity. We generated expressed sequence tags (ESTs) by suppression subtraction hybridization (SSH) to identify differentially expressed genes in drought-tolerant and -susceptible genotypes in chickpea.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>EST libraries were generated by SSH from root and shoot tissues of IC4958 (drought tolerant) and ICC 1882 (drought resistant) exposed to terminal drought conditions by the dry down method. SSH libraries were also constructed by using 2 sets of bulks prepared from the RNA of root tissues from selected recombinant inbred lines (RILs) (10 each) for the extreme high and low root biomass phenotype. A total of 3062 unigenes (638 contigs and 2424 singletons), 51.4% of which were novel in chickpea, were derived by cluster assembly and sequence alignment of 5949 ESTs. Only 2185 (71%) unigenes showed significant BLASTX similarity (<1E-06) in the NCBI non-redundant (nr) database. Gene ontology functional classification terms (BLASTX results and GO term), were retrieved for 2006 (92.0%) sequences, and 656 sequences were further annotated with 812 Enzyme Commission (EC) codes and were mapped to 108 different KEGG pathways. In addition, expression status of 830 unigenes in response to terminal drought stress was evaluated using macro-array (dot blots). The expression of few selected genes was validated by northern blotting and quantitative real-time PCR assay.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study compares not only genes that are up- and down-regulated in a drought-tolerant genotype under terminal drought stress and a drought susceptible genotype but also between the bulks of the selected RILs exhibiting extreme phenotypes. More than 50% of the genes identified have been shown to be associated with drought stress in chickpea for the first time. This study not only serves as resource for marker discovery, but can provide a better insight into the selection of candidate genes (both up- and downregulated) associated with drought tolerance. These results can be used to identify suitable targets for manipulating the drought-tolerance trait in chickpea.</p

Efficacy of some medicinal plants against human dental pathogens

123-127Dental caries is one of the most prevalent diseases having multifactorial etiology. Most of the treatments in dental caries is aimed at either elimination or suppression of bacteria by antibiotics. Increased resistance of oral bacteria to antibiotics however, has developed keen interest of researcher in herbal treatment. In our investigation we have screened nine medicinal plants from Marathwada region. We have proved effective inhibition of dental pathogens by aqueous extract of plants. Amongst selected plants leaves of Emblica officinalis Gaertn. syn. Phyllanthus emblica Linn. and Terminalia bellirica Roxb. and flowers of Syzygium aromaticum (Linn.) Merrill &amp; Perry showed three to four times more inhibition in comparison with effective antibiotics like Carbenicillin, Tetracycline, Nalidixic acid and Nitrofurantoin of four dental pathogens, viz. Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus mitis, Streptococcus sanguis and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans isolated by us. </span

Farnesol Sensitivity of Serum Induced Yeast to Hyphae Morphogenesis: A Study on Fifty Clinical Isolates of Candida albicans

Aim: Objective of this study was to examine farnesol sensitivity of yeast to hyphae dimorphism in clinical isolates of Candida albicans. Study Design: Variations in virulence attributes contribute to variations in pathogenicity of C. albicans. Ability to switch from yeast to hyphae morphology is an important virulence factor. Farnesol, a quorum sensing molecule is known to play an important role in the regulation of C. albicans morphogenesis. Analysis of farnesol susceptibility of yeast to hyphae conversion may reveal a factor responsible for variation in pathogenicity among clinical isolates of C. albicans. Place and Duration of Study: SCG Medical College & SGGS Memorial Hospital, and School of Life Sciences, SRTM University, Nanded, India. Duration of this study was, December 2008 to December 2010. Methodology: Fifty clinical isolates of C. albicans were recovered from body fluids (such as, sputum, blood, urine, vaginal swab, tracheal swab, throat swab, feces, pus and cerebrospinal fluid, etc.) of patients with different clinical manifestations, in the tertiary care center hospital. Presumptive identification of C. albicans was done on HiCHROM agar- Candida, while confirmation was done by Germ tube formation assay, Carbohydrate assimilation and Corn meal agar test. Serum induced yeast to hyphae morphogenesis in C. albicans was performed in 96 well plates. Recent methodology of micro broth dilution was used for farnesol susceptibility testing in fifty clinical isolates. Results: Farnesol prevented hyphae formation in a concentration dependent manner, in the range 25 to 400 μM. Inhibition of ≥ 50% hyphae was considered as significant reduction in morphogenesis. MIC70 for farnesol mediated inhibition of morphogenesis in C. albicans was at 200 μM. Mean values for percentage inhibition of morphogenesis in fifty strains was compared by analysis of variance (ANOVA). P = 0.05 was considered significant. Conclusion: Susceptibility of yeast to hyphae morphogenesis to the quorum sensing molecule farnesol, varied significantly among clinical isolates of C. albicans. We hypothesize that variation in farnesol sensitivity may be a factor responsible for variable dissemination and infection ability of C. albicans