Nutritional supplementation with the mushroom Agaricus sylvaticus reduces oxidative stress in children with HIV

Narrative Review: Bioactive Potential of Various Mushrooms as the Treasure of Versatile Therapeutic Natural Product

Mushrooms have remained an eternal part of traditional cuisines due to their beneficial health potential and have long been recognized as a folk medicine for their broad spectrum of nutraceuticals, as well as therapeutic and prophylactic uses. Nowadays, they have been extensively investigated to explain the chemical nature and mechanisms of action of their biomedicine and nutraceuticals capacity. Mushrooms belong to the astounding dominion of Fungi and are known as a macrofungus. Significant health benefits of mushrooms, including antiviral, antibacterial, anti-parasitic, antifungal, wound healing, anticancer, immunomodulating, antioxidant, radical scavenging, detoxification, hepatoprotective cardiovascular, anti-hypercholesterolemia, and anti-diabetic effects, etc., have been reported around the globe and have attracted significant interests of its further exploration in commercial sectors. They can function as functional foods, help in the treatment and therapeutic interventions of sub-optimal health states, and prevent some consequences of life-threatening diseases. Mushrooms mainly contained low and high molecular weight polysaccharides, fatty acids, lectins, and glucans responsible for their therapeutic action. Due to the large varieties of mushrooms present, it becomes challenging to identify chemical components present in them and their beneficial action. This article highlights such therapeutic activities with their active ingredients for mushrooms.

Anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase property of some edible mushrooms in Asia

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which is a serious health threat worldwide. One of its core enzymes, reverse transcriptase (RT), is a target for HIV inhibition. A number of bioactive compounds have been successfully used for HIV treatment. However, HIV rapidly mutates, and long-term treatment can cause drug-resistant strains. Therefore, new inhibitors are required to overcome this problem. In this study, the aqueous, ethanolic and hexane crude extracts of 19 edible and medicinal mushrooms, which are widely grown and available commercially in Thailand, were screened against HIV-1 RT. The results showed that the water extracts of A. blazei and I. obliquus, the ethanol extracts of I. obliquus and P. igniarius and the hexane extract of I. obliquus exhibited strong anti-HIV-1 RT activity with IC₅₀ values of 1.92 ± 0.15, 4.39 ± 0.79, 6.17 ± 0.76 and 7.75 ± 246 µg/ml, respectively. These mushrooms have the potential for HIV treatment, and further study on identification of the bioactive compounds against HIV-1 RT should be performed.

N-acetyl cysteine and mushroom Agaricus sylvaticus supplementation decreased parasitaemia and pulmonary oxidative stress in a mice model of malaria

Background

Malaria infection can cause high oxidative stress, which could lead to the development of severe forms of malaria, such as pulmonary malaria. In recent years, the role of reactive oxygen species in the pathogenesis of the disease has been discussed, as well as the potential benefit of antioxidants supplementation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) or mushroom Agaricus sylvaticus supplementation on the pulmonary oxidative changes in an experimental model of malaria caused by Plasmodium berghei strain ANKA.

Methods

Swiss male mice were infected with P. berghei and treated with NAC or AS. Samples of lung tissue and whole blood were collected after one, three, five, seven or ten days of infection for the assessment of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), nitrites and nitrates (NN) and to assess the degree of parasitaemia.

Results

Although parasitaemia increased progressively with the evolution of the disease in all infected groups, there was a significant decrease from the seventh to the tenth day of infection in both antioxidant-supplemented groups. Results showed significant higher levels of TEAC in both supplemented groups, the highest occurring in the group supplemented with A. sylvaticus. In parallel, TBARS showed similar levels among all groups, while levels of NN were higher in animals supplemented with NAC in relation to the positive control groups and A. sylvaticus, whose levels were similar to the negative control group.

Conclusion

Oxidative stress arising from plasmodial infection was attenuated by supplementation of both antioxidants, but A. sylvaticus proved to be more effective and has the potential to become an important tool in the adjuvant therapy of malaria.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-015-0717-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.