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These medicinal mushrooms inhibit triple-negative breast cancer
Supplementation with extracts of medicinal mushrooms such as shiitake, maitake, reishi, Cordyceps sinensis, and Agaricus blazei may slow the growth of difficult-to-treat triple negative breast cancer tumors. This is evident from an Italian animal study.
Study
Italian biologists at the University of Pavia injected mice with 4T1 cells. These cells are breast cancer cells that do not respond to estradiol, not to progesterone and not to epidermal growth factor. They also attract little attention from the immune system.
4T1 cells resemble the triple-negative breast cancer cells that oncologists find in women with difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer cells. The researchers hoped that medicinal mushrooms contain substances that can inhibit these forms of breast cancer cells.
The Italians gave some of their mice a daily dose of a mix of medicinal substances marketed as Micotherapy U-care. This supplement contains extracts of shiitake, maitake, reishi, Cordyceps sinensis, and Agaricus blazei. You can see the composition of the supplement below.
If the mice had been adult humans, they would have been given about 1,400-1,600 milligrams of extract daily. This amounts to 2 capsules per day.
Results
The main tumor that developed after the injection of the 4T1 cells was smaller in the mice that received the mushroom extract supplement.
On day 20 [T3] of the supplement, the researchers measured the distance the mice covered of their own accord. When mice feel good, they are more mobile. The distance was greater in the supplementation group, as can be seen below.
T1 = day 1 of the experiment.
When the Italians studied cancer cells from the mice, they found fewer inflammatory markers in the supplementation group. However, the researchers suspect that this is only part of the complete mechanism by which mushrooms slow down tumors.
Conclusion
"Although further investigations are necessary to translate these experimental findings to clinical setting, turning them into new clinical therapeutic protocols, the present study remarkably supports the valuable potential of medicinal mushrooms extracts, being a natural source of novel drugs, as adjuvant therapy in the critical management of triple-negative breast cancer", the researchers conclude.
Sponsor
According to the publication in International Journal of Medical Sciences, the study was paid for by the Italian government and the researchers' university. AVD Reform, the manufacturer of Micotherapy U-care, did not sponsor the study.
Source:
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 May 14;21(10):3479.
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