Proteomic profiling of Ganoderma tsugae ethanol extract-induced adipogenesis displaying browning features

Genome of Ganoderma Species Provides Insights Into the Evolution, Conifers Substrate Utilization, and Terpene Synthesis for Ganoderma tsugae

Ganoderma tsugae is an endemic medicinal mushroom in Northeast China, providing important source of pharmaceutical product. Comparing with other Ganoderma species, wild G. tsugae can utilize coniferous wood. However, functional genes related to medicinal component synthesis and the genetic mechanism of conifer substrate utilization is still obscure. Here, we assembled a high-quality G. tsugae genome with 18 contigs and 98.5% BUSCO genes and performed the comparative genomics with other Ganoderma species. G. tsugae diverged from their common ancestor of G. lingzhi and G. sinense about 21 million years ago. Genes in G. tsugae-specific and G. tsugae-expanded gene families, such as salh, phea, cyp53a1, and cyp102a, and positively selected genes, such as glpk and amie, were functionally enriched in plant-pathogen interaction, benzoate degradation, and fanconi anemia pathway. Those functional genes might contribute to conifer substrate utilization of G. tsugae. Meanwhile, gene families in the terpene synthesis were identified and genome-wide SNP variants were detected in population. Finally, the study provided valuable genomic resources and offered useful hints for the functional gene mapping and investigation of key gene contributing to conifer cultivation substrate utilization and medicinal component biosynthesis.

Ganoderma tsugae suppresses the proliferation of endometrial carcinoma cells via Akt signaling pathway

Ganoderma is one of the common medicinal mushrooms in traditional Chinese medicine. Previous researches have unveiled the multifaceted biological activity of Ganoderma extract. Ganoderma tsugae has been investigated the potential on curing prostate, colon, lung, epidermoid, breast and ovarian cancers, but not including endometrial cancer. Endometrial cancer is a gynecological malignant tumor with serious drug resistance problem in clinical cancer treatment. This study aimed to demonstrate the first study of Ganoderma on treating endometrial cancer. The Ganoderma tsugae ethanol extract (GTEE) could suppress the proliferation of endometrial cancer cells HEC-1-A, KLE, and AN3 CA. GTEE also induced G1/S phase arrest and mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in endometrial cancer cells. Furthermore, the Akt signaling pathway could be suppressed by GTEE. Therefore, our results suggest for the first time that GTEE has the potential to be an adjuvant therapeutic agent in the treatment of endometrial cancer.

Natural Extracts That Stimulate Adipocyte Browning and Their Underlying Mechanisms

Despite progress in understanding the developmental lineage and transcriptional factors regulating brown and beige adipocytes, the role of environmental modifiers, such as food components and natural extracts, remains to be elucidated. Furthermore, the undesirable pleiotropic effects produced by synthetic drugs targeting adipose tissue browning and thermogenesis necessitate research into alternative natural sources to combat obesity and related metabolic disorders. The current review, therefore, focused on the effects of various extracts from foods, plants, and marine products on adipose tissue browning and obesity. In particular, the recent findings of food components and marine products on adipose tissue browning will be discussed here.

Recent developments in natural products for white adipose tissue browning

Excess accumulation of white adipose tissue (WAT) causes obesity which is an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Obesity is a serious concern because it has been the leading causes of death worldwide, including diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer. Therefore, uncovering the mechanism of obesity and discovering anti-obesity drugs are crucial to prevent obesity and its complications. Browning, inducing white adipose tissue to brown or beige (brite) fat which is brown-like fat emerging in WAT, becomes an appealing therapeutic strategy for obesity and metabolic disorders. Due to lack of efficacy or intolerable side-effects, the clinical trials that promote brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and browning of WAT have not been successful in humans. Obviously, more specific means still need to be developed to activate browning of white adipose tissue. In this review, we summarized seven kinds of natural products (alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, long chain fatty acids, phenolic acids, else and extract) promoting white adipose tissue browning which can ameliorate the metabolic disorders, including obesity, dislipidemia, insulin resistance and diabetes. Since natural products are important drug sources and the browning property plays a significant role in not only obesity treatment but also in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) improvement, natural products of inducing browning may be an irreplaceable drug discovery orientation for obesity, diabetes and even other metabolic disorders.