Ganoderma lucidum inhibits tumour cell proliferation and induces tumour cell death
Yi-Zhen Xie a,1, Sen-Zhu Li a,1, Albert Yee c, David P. La Pierre c,d, Zhaoqun Deng c, Daniel Y. Lee c,d, Qing-Ping Wu a, Qi Chen a, Chong Li a, Zhi Zhang a, Jun Guo a, Zide Jiang b, Burton B. Yang c,d,∗
a Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, 100 Central Xian-Lie Road, Guangzhou, China
b Department of Plant Pathology, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wu-Shan Road, Guangzhou, China
c Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Canada M4N 3M5
d Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada
Received 18 March 2005; received in revised form 8 October 2005; accepted 11 October 2005
Abstract
Ganoderma lucidum, a traditional Chinese medicinal fungus, has been a favourite remedy in oriental medicine for centuries. The objective of this study is to analyze whether G. lucidum affects cancer cell proliferation and cell death. Malignant human breast carcinoma cells were used in our studies. Different preparations of G. lucidum spores were added to the cancer cells at a final concentration of 1 mg/ml followed by incubation of the cultures for two days. Treatment with G. lucidum resulted in tumour cells detachment from the tissue culture plates and death. The proliferation of the adherent cells was also inhibited. The experiments indicated that the inhibitory effects of G. lucidum on cancer cell growth were sporoderm-broken spores (broken by enzymatic method) > sporoderm-broken spores (broken by physical method) > intact spores > buffer control....
