Impressive new research on the "Mushroom of Immortality" - Reishi mushroom (ganoderma lucidum)! The research shows that supplementation with this unique mushroom "aids in controlling tumor growth as well as serving as a protective factor for wounds and hair loss that resulted from traditional radiation therapy during cancer treatment"!
Just one of the many unique components of our Infinimin ® Immunity Multivitamin!
This study evaluates the effect of mushroom beta-glucans (MBGS) derived from solid culture of Ganoderma lucidum on tumor inhibition by examining size of the primary tumor and rate of metastasis in Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) bearing mice (C57BL/6), given oral administration of mushroom beta glucans (MBGS) from ganoderma lucidum with radiation therapy. A previous result showed that MBGS enhances natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity in mice without LLC bearing in advance. Furthermore, applications of MBGS in conjunction with radiation therapy were effective in controlling tumor growth, and rate of metastasis, life threatening, and can potentially serve as a protective factor for wounds and hair loss that resulted from the overgrowth of primary tumor in LLC bearing mice[1].
Two very interesting graphical summaries were given to showcase this. One, regarding lung tumor size was of particular interest. Figure 2 (below) , shows the tumor size from control, Radiation Therapy, Mushroom Beta Glucans (MBGS), and a combination of both. Suprisingly, MBGS alone, had a 50% reduction in tumor size. Radiation therapy had a 75% reduction, but often causes hair loss and multiple other side effects, where as MBGS has no side effects.
The second graphical summary is also of strong interest. Instead of looking at just tumor size, they looked at the number of lung tumor metastatic nodules. Amazingly, ganoderma lucidum (via MBGS) had a 80% reduction of metastatic nodules, by far more than radiation therapy alone.
Radiation therapy is one of the mainstays in cancer therapies to date. During the treatments process, high energy waves are projected to the cancerous growth, causing damage within the cells and ultimately cause the tumor to shrink. However, one of the disadvantages of radiation therapy is that the effectiveness is limited only to the localized tumor rather than a metastatic cancer, and a combination of immunotherapy from this mushroom species and radiation therapy could be recommended for the best post treatments prognosis [2].
Finally, aside from lethargy, fatigue, and unintentional weight loss, which are common clinical manifestations for the cancer bearing mice, we have also observed open wounds and severe alopecia (hair loss) inflicted by the rapid growth of the primary tumor, from which the symptoms cannot be alleviated by the radiation therapy. However, within groups that received MBGS treatments, there are minimal hair loss and less severe wounds observed on the surface of the primary tumor. Findings from Kougias et al. indicate that in addition to macrophages, neutrophils and NK cells, membrane receptors for beta-glucan, are present in the human dermal fibroblasts [3], which promote wound repair and re-epithelialization of a full-thickness skin by stimulating human dermal fibroblast collagen biosynthesis through a nuclear factor-1 dependent mechanism [4, 5].
In addition, as suggested by prior researches, interferon-II (IFN-II), one of the primary cytokine produced by NK cells responsible for cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting, can effectively activate macrophage and dendritic cells to promote immunotherapeutic approaches to control and/or eliminate cancers [6]. As demonstrated from the result of this study, they authors suggested that the inhibition of the primary tumor metastasis was related to the expression of IFN-II.
Truly incredibly research being performed on just one of the key ingredients in our our Infinimin ® Immunity Multivitamin!
References
1. Cheng, et. al. The Effect of Mushroom Beta-Glucans from Solid Culture of Ganoderma lucidum on Inhibition of the Primary Tumor Metastasis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative MedicineVolume 2014 (2014).
2. B. Burnette, Y. X. Fu, and R. R. Weichselbaum, “The confluence of radiotherapy and immunotherapy,” Frontiers in Oncology, vol. 2, p. 143, 2012.
3. P. Kougias, D. Wei, P. J. Rice et al., “Normal human fibroblasts express pattern recognition receptors for fungal (1→3)-beta-D-glucans,” Infection and Immunity, vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 3933–3938, 2001.
4. D. Wei, L. Zhang, D. L. Williams, and W. Browder, “Glucan stimulates human dermal fibroblast collagen biosynthesis through a nuclear factor-1 dependent mechanism,” Wound Repair and Regeneration, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 161–168, 2002.
5. S. B. Lee, H. W. Jeon, Y. W. Lee et al., “Bio-artificial skin composed of gelatin and (1→3), (1→6)-beta-glucan,” Biomaterials, vol. 24, no. 14, pp. 2503–2511, 2003.
6. G. P. Dunn, L. J. Old, and R. D. Schreiber, “The immunobiology of cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting,” Immunity, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 137–148, 2004.