The Antiproliferation Activity of Ganoderma formosanum Extracts on Prostate Cancer Cells

Cheng-Yen Chiang; Kai-Di Hsu; Yen-Yi Lin; Chang-Wei Hsieh; Jui-Ming Liu; Tze-Ying Lu; Kuan-Chen Cheng

doi:10.1080/12298093.2020.1746064

The Antiproliferation Activity of Ganoderma formosanum Extracts on Prostate Cancer Cells

Mycobiology. 2020 Apr 15;48(3):219-227. doi: 10.1080/12298093.2020.1746064. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Cheng-Yen Chiang¹, Kai-Di Hsu², Yen-Yi Lin², Chang-Wei Hsieh³, Jui-Ming Liu¹, Tze-Ying Lu⁴, Kuan-Chen Cheng^{2

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Affiliations

¹ Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
² Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
⁵ Graduate Institute of Food Science Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China. Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.

Abstract

Androgen-independent prostate cancer accounts for mortality in the world. In this study, various extracts of a medical fungus dubbed Ganoderma formosanum were screened for inhibition of DU145 cells, an androgen-independent prostate cancer cell line. Results demonstrated that both hexane (GF-EH) and butanol (GF-EB) fraction of G. formosanum ethanol extract inhibited DU145 cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. GF-EH induced cell-cycle arrest in G1 phase of DU145 cells via downregulation of cyclin E2 protein expression. In addition, GF-EB triggered extrinsic apoptosis of DU145 cells by activating caspase 3 gene expression resulting in programed cell death. Above all, both GF-EH and GF-EB show lower toxicity to normal human fibroblast cell line compared to DU145 cell, implying that they possess specific drug action on cancer cells. This study provides a molecular basis of G. formosanum extract as a potential ingredient for treatment of androgen-independent prostate cancer.

Keywords: Ganoderma formosanum; Prostate cancer; apoptosis; cell cycle arrest; cyclin.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the Ministry of Health and Welfare [Taipei, Taiwan (#10511 and #10612)] and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [MOST 106-2628-E-002-009-MY3].