Oral Administration of Proteoglycan Isolated from Phellinus linteus in the Prevention and Treatment of Collagen-Induced Arthritis in Mice

Abstract

To examine whether oral administration of proteoglycan derived from Phellinus linteus, which is known as the medicinal mushroom, can prevent or treat collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice as experimental model of autoimmune disease. CIA was induced by intradermal injection of type II collagen (CII) emulsified with complete freund's adjuvant (CFA) into the base of the tail (on day 7) followed by a booster injection on day 21 into the footpad. To examine the ability of proteoglycan to effect the inhibition of CIA, doses of proteoglycan were orally administered on day 0 (pre-administration) or day 28 (post-administration) at two groups. The inhibition of CIA by oral administration of proteoglycan was associated with decrease in anti-CII IgG and IgG2a antibodies (Abs) as well as varying kinds of cytokines including IL-12, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma. The results showed that administration of proteoglycan was followed by decrease of CIA of the mice in pre- and post-administration groups. Our findings suggest that immunomodulating proteoglycan isolated from P. linteus may be crucially involved in the prevention and treatment of autoimmune joint inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis, although no definite role of anti-CII Abs in the human disease has been established.

Mushrooms as therapeutic agents

“…Quel. Ethanolic extracts Antiallergic (Sano et al, 2002) Phellinus linteus Ethanolic extracts and a proteoglycan Anti-inflammatory activity (Kim et al, 2003(Kim et al, & 2004 Polyporus umbellatus 5α,8α-epidioxy-ergosta-6,22-dien-3-ol Potentiators of ADP-induced platelet aggregation (Lu et al, 1985) Schizophyllum commune Fries Schizophyllan Immunotherapy (Hazama et al, 1995) Scutiger ovinus Scutigeral (15) Pain killer (Szallasi et al, 1999) Scutiger confluens Albaconol (16) Antagonist at the VR1 receptor (Liu, 2002) Tremella fuciformis Berk. Acidic polysaccharide from the fruiting bodies…”

“…Ethanolic extracts and a proteoglycan from P. linteus show anti-inflammatory effect in the collageninduced arthritis and in the croton oil-induced ear edema test in mice and antinociceptive effect in the writhing test (Kim et al, 2004;Kim et al, 2003). Other compounds effective in the writhing test are the ganoderic acids A, B, G and H, isolated from G. lucidum.…”

Promotion of Dermal Wound Healing by Polysaccharides Isolated from Phellinus gilvus in rats

“…Recently, polysaccharides isolated from Phellinus mushrooms have received special attention due to their potent pharmacological activities, including anti-tumor [2,4,5,10], immunostimulating [15], and anti-inflammatory properties [13,14]. Among these Phellinus mushrooms, PG used in this study has advantages over the other Phellinus mushrooms in that it has a very short growth period (3 months) compared to other Phellinus mushrooms (2-3 years) making it cheaper to produce.…”

Role of Oyster Mushroom (<i>Pleurotus ostreatus</i>) Against Cecal Coccidiosis in Cobb 500 Broiler Chicken

“…They stabilize microflora in the gastrointestinal tract, and prevents colonization of host cells by pathogens and also stimulates non-specific host immune response or phagocytosis by macrophages [6]. There has been a recent upsurge of interest in mushrooms not only as a health food which is rich in protein [7] but also as a source of biologically active compounds of medicinal value which include complementary medicine/dietary supplements for anticancer [8], antioxidant [9], antimicrobial [10], antiviral [11,12], antiinflammatory [13,14], antiallergic [15], hepatoprotective [16], immunopotentiating [17] and hypocholesterolemic [18,19] agents. Mushrooms also contain a spectrum of nutrients at varied levels, such as B vitamins, vitamin D, and minerals (potassium, copper, magnesium, selenium, and zinc) [20].…”