Augmentation of various immune reactivities of tumor-bearing hosts with an extract ofCordyceps sinensis

Abstract

In order to enhance general reactivity of immune system in the tumor-bearing host, we employed extract of Cordyceps sinensis (CSE) as a biological response modifier. Cordyceps sinensis is an interesting material produced by a kind of mushroom parasitic to larval moths and was used to hasten recovery from exhaustion in ancient China. In this experiment, C57BL/6 mice implanted subcutaneously with syngeneic EL-4 lymphoma cells were employed as the host. Oral administration of the extract leads to a reduction of tumor size and prolongation of the host survival time. As judged by plaque-forming cells against T-dependent (sheep erythrocytes) and T-independent (bacterial lipopolysaccharide) antigens, CSE showed to augment the antibody responses. As for the activities of peritoneal macrophages, chemotaxis was dramatically depressed within a few days after EL-4 transplantation up to the end of life, but treatment with CSE at -14, -7, -4, +4, +7 and +10 days after the tumor transplantation augmented the activity about four times stronger than that of control. Phagocytic activity of macrophages was also decreased in tumor-bearing mice treated with cyclophosphamide (100 mg/kg) 3 and 5 days after tumor transplantation. But administration of CSE restored the activity to more than the normal level. The overall efficacy of CSE was tested with protective activity against systemic infection by Salmonella enteritides. The tumor-bearing mice receiving this medicine lived significantly longer than any other groups without CSE.

Effects of fermentation products ofCordyceps militarison growth performance and bone mineralization of broiler chicks

“…When mice bearing lymphoma were fed with extract of C. sinensis, the phagocytosis of macrophage and the salmonellosis resistance increased and the mice receiving the extract of C. sinensis lived longer than those without the extract (Yamaguchi et al 1990). In this study, after normal broiler chicks were fed FPCM, serum enzyme activities were not significantly changed.…”

Induction of HL-60 apoptosis by ethyl acetate extract of Cordyceps sinensis fungal mycelium

“…Cordyceps sinensis (Cs), the Chinese caterpillar fungus, has been widely used as a tonic food and herbal medicine since ancient times. Although Cs has been mainly used in traditional medicine to protect and strengthen the lung and kidney, it has shown remarkable antitumor activities in several in vitro and in vivo studies (Yamaguchi et al, 1990;Bok et al, 1999;Huang et al, 2000). Cs has also been recommended for cancer prevention and treatment or as an adjuvant drug of cancer chemotherapy (Zhu et al, 1998;Ji, 1999).…”

Cordyceps as an Herbal Drug

“…Studies in vivo showed cordyceps had an inhibitory effect on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and meth-A fibrosarcoma (Ng and Wang 2005), EL-4 lymphoma (Yamaguchi et al 1990), B16 melanoma (Wu, Zhang, and Leung 2007a), Lewis lung carcinoma (Nakamura et al 1999), and H22 tumors (Chen et al 2006) in mice. Furthermore, C. sinensis reversed the suppressive effect of Taxol-induced leukopenia in mice, which indicated that C. sinensis could be used with other chemotherapy methods for cancer treatment .…”