This review describes pharmacologically active compounds from mushrooms. Compounds and complex substances with antimicrobial, antiviral, antitumor, antiallergic, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antiatherogenic, hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective and central activities are covered, focusing on the review of recent literature. The production of mushrooms or mushroom compounds is discussed briefly.

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Two new farnesyl hydroquinones named ganomycin A (1) and ganomycin B (2) were isolated from Ganoderma pfeifferi, and their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Both carboxylic acids exhibit antimicrobial activity against several Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

There is an urgent need to develop new antimicrobial agents due to increasing bacterial resistance to therapeutically used drugs. Most methicillin-resistent Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are resistent not only to b-lactams, but also to most other antimicrobial agents.1) Penicillin resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae strains is widely accepted as a global problem. [2][3][4][5] Bacteria have developed several strategies for escaping the lethal action of b-lactams. It may be expected that specific circumstance will make one the more effective stragegy than the other. 6) Much effort has been devoted to the discovery of drugs which would not be cleaved by b-lactamases of pathogenic strains and which have suitable physicochemical and pharmacodynamic profiles. 7,8) The modifications of b-lactam antibiotics could not keep pace with the development of resistance in the pathogenic microorganisms, so that numerous bacteria, among them multidrug resistant Staphylococcus strains, can no longer be treated with the currently available b-lactam antibiotics. 1,9,10) Besides the modification of existing antibiotics by chemical or biochemical methods the coupling of presently used antibiotics with other bioactive compounds or components from them which are not in use till now is a promising way to generate novel molecules with improved therapeutic properties.Laccase (benzenediol:oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.10.3.2), classically considered a hydroquinone oxidizing enzyme, is able to oligomerize molecules. Up to now main application fields of this enzyme are waste detoxification, textile dye transformation, biosensors and diagnostic application, where the capability to catalyze polymerization reactions is used. 11-13)Recently we reported about our synthetic results on coupling reactions with laccase.14-17) Now we have employed laccase to achieve derivatisation of b-lactam antibiotics and to couple them with derivatives of 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid. These derivatives are structurally related to the ganomycins, a new chemical class of antibacterial compounds 18) and to other antibacterial active isolates 19,20) therefore interesting as coupling partner for b-lactams using laccase as initiator of the reaction to produce novel hybridantibiotics by biotransformation.The use of laccase for the derivatisation of antibiotics is limited to a few examples including the phenolic oxidation of 7-(4-hydroxyphenylacetamido)cephalosporinic acid, 21) the dimerization of penicillin X 22) and the oxidative coupling of hydroquinone and mithramicine. 23) In the examples realized to date, the sought object of enhancement of the bioactive effect has not been achieved. 21-23)The aim of this study was (i) to investigate whether laccase can be used for the synthesis of novel penicillins by heteromolecular coupling of two different compounds, (ii) to characterize the products of the reaction, and (iii) to analyze the biological activity of the novel penicillins. Results and DiscussionBiotransformation of Amoxicillin and Ampicillin by Laccase of Tr...

Sixteen novel cephalosporins were synthesized by amination of 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid derivatives with the aminocephalosporins cefadroxil, cefalexin, cefaclor, and the structurally related carbacephem loracarbef using laccases from Trametes sp. or Myceliophthora thermophila. All products inhibited the growth of several Gram positive bacterial strains in the agar diffusion assay, among them methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. The products protected mice against an infection with Staphylococcus aureus lethal to the control animals. Cytotoxicity and acute toxicity of the new compounds were negligible. The results show the usefulness of laccase for the synthesis of potential new antibiotics. The biological activity of the new compounds stimulates intensified pharmacological tests.