The effect of a protein-bound polysaccharide from Coriolus versicolor on immunological parameters and experimental infections in mice.

Mayer P, Drews J.

Abstract

The influence of PSK, a protein bound polysaccharide from Coriolus versicolor on various immunological parameters was studied, PSK was found to enhance B cell activity as measured by the spleen plaque-forming cell assay in mice, and to stimulate mouse macrophages as determined by an enhancement of carbon clearance and an increase in the phagocytosis of opsonized sheep red blood cells by peritoneal mouse macrophages in vitro. The activation of mouse macrophages by PSK appeared to correlate with the therapeutic effects of the compound. In mice made granulocytopenic with cyclophosphamide and subsequently infected with a variety of garm-negative pathogens or with Candida albicans, PSK prolonged the average survival time of the animals. The compound also led to a drastic increase in the number of animals surviving such experimental infections as compared to untreated controls. Possible mechanisms responsible for these protective effects by PSK are discussed.

PMID: 6966256 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6966256

Studies on antitumor polysaccharides, especially D-II, from mycelium of Coriolus versicolor.

Sugiura M, Ohno H, Kunihisa M, Hirata F, Ito H.

Abstract

A water-soluble polysaccharide, D-II with marked antitumor activity was isolated from the cultured mycelium of Coriolus versicolor by extraction with hot-water, fractional precipitation with ethanol and ion-exchange chromatography. D-II strongly inhibited the growth of Sarcoma-180 transplanted subcutaneously in mice by intraperitoneal, intravenous, subcutaneous or intra-muscular administration at a dose of 5 mg/kg. the molecular weight was estimated to be 2,000,000 by gel-filtration or 6,500,000 by light scattering analysis. The chemical structure of D-II was then investigated by periodate oxidation, methylation analysis, Smith degradation, and a combination of controlled Smith degradation and methylation analysis. These studies proposed that D-II is composed of a unit structure of four D-glucose residues, and is a glucan consisting of beta-D-1,3-linked main chain in which one for every three D-glucose residues is branched at C-6 with beta-D-1,6-linkage.

PMID: 7206362 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7206362

Survival time of tumor-bearing rats as related to operative stress and immunopotentiators.

Hattori T, Hamai Y, Ikeda T, Takiyama W, Hirai T, Miyoshi Y.

Abstract

To investigate the mechanism of tumor growth enhancement induced by operative stress in rats, laparo-thoracotomy was performed on day 2 after tumor cell inoculation associated with administrations of various kinds of immunopotentiators. OK-432 (Streptococcal preparation), PS-K (extract from mycelium of Coriolus Versicolor), Lentinan (extract from Lentinus Edodus) and C. parvum were administered intravenously or intraperitoneally in the fractionated form prior to or after inoculation. In general, administration of each immunopotentiator, except for Lentinan, resulted in a recovery from the reduction in survival days after laparo-thoracotomy. In particular, OK-432 administration prior to inoculation showed a significant improvement.

PMID: 7109360 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7109360

Combination therapy of radiation and immunomodulators in the treatment of MM46 tumor transplanted in C3H/He mice.

Miyaji C, Ogawa Y, Imajo Y, Imanaka K, Kimura S.

Abstract

Female C3H/He mice aged 10 weeks with transplanted MM46 tumor were used in an investigation of the timing of administration of immunomodulators, such as PSK (a protein-bound polysaccharide prepared from Coriolus versicolor), OK-432 (streptococcal preparation), bestatin (inhibitor of aminopeptidase B) combined with two fractionated local irradiation with the total dose of 3,000 rad. The daily dose of 250 mg/kg of PSK, 1.0 KE/mouse of OK-432, or 300 micrograms/mouse of bestatin were injected intraperitoneally for 4 consecutive days before or after irradiation. The antitumor effect was evaluated by the changes of tumor volume and survival curves. When PSK or OK-432 was administered after irradiation, tumor growth was decreased and 60-day survival rate and survival curve were significantly elongated compared with the control group and the group to which PSK or OK-432 were administered before irradiation (p less than 0.025, p less than 0.05, respectively). As for bestatin, no remarkable difference was observed irrespective of the timing of administration. These results suggested that some immunomodulators show different antitumor activity depending on the combined timing relative to radiotherapy.

PMID: 6828288 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6828288

Effect of a protein-bound polysaccharide PS-K on the complement system.

Kato H, Yokoe N, Takemura S, Yoshikawa T, Furukawa Y, Kondo M.

Abstract

A protein-bound polysaccharide from mycelia of Coriolus versicolor PS-K, clinically used as an immunomodulator, has been shown to restore the decreased cellular immune response and to exhibit host-mediated antitumor activity. In this experiment, PS-K was found to increase serum complement level in guinea pig and in human without malignancy, when hemolytic assay of complement was performed using sensitized sheep erythrocytes for the classical pathway activity and unsensitized rabbit erythrocytes for the alternative pathway activity. Assay of complement components revealed increase in C3 level in guinea pig, but no significant changes in C1q, C4, C3, properdin, C3 activator, and C1-inhibitor in human, while C5 and C9 were depressed. Conversion of beta 1C to beta 1A was observed in the 7th day’s plasma of these patients by crossed immunoelectrophoresis. Biosynthesis of guinea pig C3 was accelerated by administration of PS-K, but that of C4 was not affected. These evidences suggested that PS-K might potentiate immune response of the host by elevating serum complement level, in addition to the activation of the complement system.

PMID: 6867480 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6867480

Removal of color from kraft mill wastewaters with cultures of white-rot fungi and with immobilized mycelium of Coriolus versicolor.

Livernoche D, Jurasek L, Desrochers M, Dorica J, Veliky IA.

Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, Point Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R 3J9.

Abstract

Screening fifteen strains of white-rot fungi for their ability to decolorize combined bleached kraft effluent showed that Coriolus versicolor in liquid culture removed over 60% of the color of the effluent within six days in the presence of sucrose. Treatment of the same effluent with this fungus, immobilized in beads of calcium alginate gel, resulted in 80% decolorization after three days in the presence of sucrose. Caustic extraction E(1) effluent was also decolorized by the immobilized fungus. Decolorization was achieved more rapidly at pH 5.0 than at pH 7.0. Recycled beads could remove color efficiently and repeatedly in the presence of air but not under anaerobic conditions.

PMID: 18551550 [PubMed]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18551550

Peroxidase-catalyzed color removal from bleach plant effluent.

Paice MG, Jurasek L.

Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, 570 St. John’s Boulevard, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada H9R 3J9.

Abstract

Effluent from the caustic extraction stage of a bleach plant is highly colored due to the presence of dissolved products from lignin chlorination and oxidation. Color removal from the effluent by hydrogen peroxide at neutral pH was catalyzed by addition of horseradish peroxidase. The catalysis with peroxidase (20 mg/L) was observed over a wide range of peroxide concentrations (0.1mM-500mM), but the largest effect was between 1mM and 100mM. The pH optimum for catalysis was around 5.0, while the basal rate of noncatalyzed peroxide color removal simply increased with pH within the range tested (3-10). Peroxidase catalysis at pH 7.6 reached a maximum at 40 degrees C in 4 h assays with 10mM peroxide, and disappeared above 60 degrees C. Compared with mycelial color removal by Coriolus versicolor, the rate of color removal by peroxide plus peroxidase was initially faster (first 4 h), but the extent of color removal after 48 h was higher with the fungal treatment. Further addition of peroxidase to the enzyme-treated effluent did not produce additional catalysis. Thus, the peroxide/peroxidase system did not fully represent the metabolic route used by the fungus.

PMID: 18553342 [PubMed – in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18553342

Krestin (PSK).

Tsukagoshi S, Hashimoto Y, Fujii G, Kobayashi H, Nomoto K, Orita K.

Abstract

A polysaccharide preparation isolated from Coriolus versicolor (Fr.) Quél. of Basidiomycetes (PSK) predominantly consists of glucan and approximately 25% tightly bound protein. PSK was effective against various allogeneic and syngeneic animal tumors and has been given orally to cancer patients. Various suppressed or enhanced immune responses of tumor-bearing animals were restored to normal levels by the administration of PSK in the tumor models tested. The killer T cell activity was augmented in tumor-bearing mice by intraperitoneal or oral administration of PSK, and there was correlation between the PSK associated antitumor effect and the killer T cell activity. It was found that PSK competed with immunosuppressive substances isolated from tumor-bearing mice and that the intestinal immune system appeared to be modulated by oral administration of PSK. After oral administration of 14C- or 35S-labeled PSK to normal rats, it was found that small or large molecular substances appeared in the serum depending on the time elapsed after administration, an indication that large molecular size products were from the digestive tract.

PMID: 6238674 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6238674

Cloning of sequences induced and suppressed by administration of PSK, antitumor protein-bound polysaccharide.

Hirose K, Hakozaki M, Matsunaga K, Yoshikumi C, Hotta T, Yanagisawa M, Yamamoto M, Endo H.

Abstract

To elucidate the effects of PSK, a protein-bound polysaccharide from Coriolus versicolor, on gene expression in tumor cells, we prepared cDNA clone libraries from PSK-treated and untreated cells of a rat ascites hepatoma line, AH66, which was previously shown to be susceptible to the antitumor action of this compound. Two PSK-induced and one suppressed cDNA clones were selected from these libraries by using a differential colony hybridization and RNA blot hybridization. PSK was thus shown to have a direct effect on the transcription and consequently on the translation of tumor cells.

PMID: 3977892 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3977892