Lactarius rufus (1→3),(1→6)-β-d-glucans: Structure, antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects

Abstract

Medicinal health benefits uses of edible as well as non-edible mushrooms have been long recognized. The pharmacological potential of mushrooms, especially antitumor, immunostimulatory and anti-inflammatory activities has been documented. Wild ectomycorrhizal mushroom, Lactarius rufus had the anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive potential of their polysaccharides evaluated using the formalin model. Two structurally different (1→3),(1→6)-linked β-D-glucans were isolated from fruiting bodies. Soluble (FSHW) β-D-glucan 1-30 mg kg(-1) produced potent inhibition of inflammatory pain caused by formalin when compared with the insoluble one (IHW), suggesting that solubility and/or branching degree could alter the activity of β-glucans. Their structures were determined using mono- and bi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, methylation analysis, and controlled Smith degradation. They were β-D-glucans, with a main chain of (1→3)-linked Glcp residues, substituted at O-6 by single-unit Glcp side chains (IHW), on average to every fourth residue of the backbone, or by mono- and few oligosaccharide side chains for soluble β-glucan.

Anti-inflammatory potential of mushroom extracts and isolated metabolites

“…polysaccharides (Dore, et al, 2007;Lu, et al, 2008;Lavi, Levinson, Peri, Hadar, & Schwartz, 2010;Adebayo, Oloke, Majolagbe, Ajani, & Bora, 2012;Ruthes, et al, 2013aRuthes, et al, , 2013bRuthes, et al, , 2013cChang, Lur, Lu, & Cheng, 2013;Castro et al, 2014;Silveira et al, 2014;Silveira et al, 2015), terpenes (Kamo, Asanoma, Shibata, & Hirota, 2003;Yoshikawa et al, 2005;Dudhgaonkar, Thyagarajan, & Sliva, 2009;Ma, Chen, Dong, & Lu, 2013;Tung et al, 2013;Xu, Yan, Bi, Han, Chen, & Wu, 2013;Choi, et al, 2014a), phenolic compounds (Quang, Harinantenaina, Nishizawa, Hashimoto, Kohchi, Soma, & Asakawa, 2006a;Quang et al, 2006bKohno et al, 2008Stanikunaite, Khan, Trappe, & Ross, 2009;Hsieh et al, 2010;Lee, & Huang et al, 2011b;Chen et al, 2013;Taofiq et al, 2015), sterols (Huang, et al, 2010;Ma, Chen, Dong, & Lu, 2013 anti-inflammatory activity of extracts prepared from mushrooms after undergoing some food processing procedures. The results showed reduced activity compared to fresh samples, which implies that anti-inflammatory compounds present in these mushrooms were degraded, e.g due to suseptibility to heating.…”

β-(1→3),(1→6)-Glucans: medicinal activities, characterization, biosynthesis and new horizons

“…Such macromolecules may have linkages with α or β configuration, and different degrees of polymerization; however, the most abundant glucans have a backbone of D-glucose-linked β-(1→3) with variable amounts of β-(1→6) branches (Ruiz-Herrera 2012;Free 2013;Synytsya and Novák 2013), similar to Fig. 1 .…”

“…Differences in the degree of branching and solubility reflected in higher antinociceptive and antiinflammatory activity of the soluble β-(1→3),(1→6) glucan extracted from Lactarius rufus when compared to insoluble fraction (Ruthes et al 2013). Soluble β-(1→3),(1→6) glucan from Pleurotus pulmonarius inhibited the migration of leukocytes to the affected tissue up to 82 % at 3 mg/kg, after acetic-acid-induced writhing reaction in mice model for inflammatory pain.…”

Fungi a source with huge potential for 'mushroom pharmaceuticals'

“…Agaricus macrosporus is another species which has obvious analgetic effect by inhibiting neurolysin with agaricoglycerides, a new class of fungal secondary metabolites that constitute esters of chlorinated 4-hydroxy benzoic acid and glycerol produced in cultures (Stadler et al, 2005). Ruthes et al (2013) studied and found that Lactarius rufus had the anti-inflammatory and antinocicep¬tive potential of their polysaccharides evaluated using the formalin model. Soluble β-d-glucan isolated from fruiting bodies of L. rufus produced potent inhibition of inflammatory pain caused by formalin.…”