Cordycepin: A review of strategies to improve the bioavailability and efficacy

Abstract

Cordycepin is a bioactive compound extracted from Cordyceps militaris. As a natural antibiotic, cordycepin has a wide variety of pharmacological effects. Unfortunately, this highly effective natural antibiotic is proved to undergo rapid deamination by adenosine deaminase (ADA) in vivo and, as a consequence, its half‐life is shortened and bioavailability is decreased. Therefore, it is of critical importance to work out ways to slow down the deamination so as to increase its bioavailability and efficacy. This study reviews recent researches on a series of aspects of cordycepin such as the bioactive molecule's pharmacological action, metabolism and transformation as well as the underlying mechanism, pharmacokinetics and, particularly, the methods for reducing the degradation to improve the bioavailability and efficacy. It is drawn that there are three methods that can be applied to improve the bioavailability and efficacy: to co‐administrate an ADA inhibitor and cordycepin, to develop more effective derivatives via structural modification, and to apply new drug delivery systems. The new knowledge can help optimize the application of the highly potent natural antibiotic‐cordycepin and develop novel therapeutic strategies.

Natural Product Cordycepin (CD) Inhibition for NRP1/CD304 Expression and Possibly SARS-CoV-2 Susceptibility Prevention on Cancers

“…Cordycepin (CD) is an active gradient or natural product from traditional Chinese medicine. As an adenosine derivative, CD processes a diverse, broad spectrum of biological/pharmacological activities, such as anti-cancer, antimetastatic, anti-viral, antiprotozoal, antimalarial, antimicrobial, insecticidal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory/immunoregulatory [39]. Thus, the CD was used to test the impact on NRP1 expressions in human cancer cell lines.…”

“…Cordycepin (CD) is an active gradient or natural product from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) from Cordyceps militaris Link and Ophiocordyceps sinensis (Berk.). Cordycepin (CD), an adenosine derivative, processes a diverse, broad spectrum of biological/pharmacological activities, such as anti-cancer, antimetastatic, anti-viral, antiprotozoal, antimalarial, antimicrobial, insecticidal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory/immunoregulatory [39][40][41].…”