Pro-apoptotic and immunomodulatory activity of extracts of some homobasidiomycetous fungi

Expression of genes involved in cell immune responses and apoptosis regulation (BCL2, CASP-9, NF-κB, TNFα, IFNγ, and IL-10) was evaluated by qPCR assays in the human leukemia cell line K562. The cells were stimulated with ethanol and hot water extracts of Agaricus bisporus, A. blazei, Phellinus linteus. Ganoderma lucidum. Upregulation of the genes (mRNA transcripts) was differed significantly with the maximum activity for ethanol extracts at concentration of 10 μg/ml and for hot water extract at 200 μg/ml. The Phellinus linteus ethanol extract performed the highest activity in tumor cells K562 with a strong pro-apoptotic effect: approximately 4.5-fold increase of BCL2 gene transcription and 2.1-fold growth of CASP-9 mRNA transcripts. Treatment of K562 cells with mushrooms hot water extracts promoted the transcription of cytokine gene IFNγ related to inflammation immune reaction. Tumor cells K562 and PBMC were shown to be more responsive to transcriptional induction of pro-apoptotic genes (particularly, BCL2 and TNFα) when stimulated with IFNγ (100 ng//ml).