Himalayan fungus Cordyceps sinensis has been used in
traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years to prevent and treat cancers
and other inflammatory diseases. However, the latest studies found the reason of
the limited applicability and limited effectiveness of the Cordyceps Therapy to
the Pancreatic Patients. The problem is that Cordyceps breaks down quickly in
the blood stream, so a minimal amount of cancer-destroying components is actually
delivered to the affected cells.
What is Cordyceps?
Cordyceps is a genus of mushrooms that counts over 600
species. These adaptogenic mushrooms are prominently featured
in ancient Chinese herbal medicine. Although they've been used in eastern
integrative medicine for centuries, the western world is just now starting to
appreciate these medicinal mushrooms.
The most popular and well-researched cordyceps varieties are Cordyceps
sinensis and Cordyceps militaris. Although human research
is still scarce, these parasitic mushrooms show great promise as a research
topic in various animal and human cell studies.
Bioactive Components of Cordyceps Mushrooms
Cordyceps is packed with nutrients and bioactive
compounds, some of which are only beginning to be understood by science:
·
cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine)
·
ergosterol peroxide
·
adenosine
·
fibrinolytic enzyme
·
xanthophylls
·
polysaccharides
·
nucleosides
·
cytosine
·
uracil
·
thymine
·
adenine
·
guanine
·
hypoxanthine
·
sterols
·
peptides, including cordymin
·
tryptophan
Can Cordyceps Help with Cancer?
Cordyceps mushrooms are some of the healthiest mushrooms
one can add to their diet. They have well-documented health benefits, including
anti-inflammatory activities, immunity-boosting effects, and anti-cancer
properties. While you should not use it on its own as a cure for cancer, adding
cordyceps to your diet can help you face cancer head-on.
Cordycepin, a naturally-occurring nucleoside found in the
cordyceps fungus has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine to
treat cancer, as well as chronic and inflammatory diseases.
The recent scientific rediscovery of natural medicines has
led to a boom in cordyceps cancer research. Even the University of Oxford
teamed up with a biopharmaceutical company in hopes of creating a
cordyceps-based chemotherapy drug using ProTide technology.
Cordycepin Research
According to clinical studies, cordyceps may have anti-cancer
and anti-metastatic properties. The mushroom can also help your body recover
from the stress of chemotherapy and cancer medication.
In order to improve its potency and clinically assess its
applications as a cancer drug, biopharmaceutical company NuCana has developed
Cordycepin into a clinical therapy, using their novel ProTide technology, to
create a chemotherapy drug with dramatically improved efficacy.
Once inside the body, Cordycepin requires transport into
cancer cells by a nucleoside transporter (hENT1), it must be converted to the
active anti-cancer metabolite, known as 3’-dATP, by a phosphorylating enzyme
(ADK), and it is rapidly broken down in the blood by an enzyme called ADA.
Together, these resistance mechanisms associated with transport, activation and
breakdown result in insufficient delivery of anti-cancer metabolite to the tumor.
NuCana have utilized novel ProTide technology to design a therapy that
can bypass these resistance mechanisms and generate high levels of the active
anti-cancer metabolite, 3’-dATP, inside cancer cells.
ProTide technology is a novel approach for delivering
chemotherapy drugs into cancer cells. It works by attaching small chemical
groups to nucleoside analogues like Cordycepin, which are then later metabolized
once it has reached the patient’s cancer cells, releasing the activated drug.
This technology has already been successfully used in the FDA approved
antiviral drugs Remsidivir and Sofusbuvir to treat different viral infections
such as Hepatitis C, Ebola and COVID-19.
The results of the study published in Clinical
Cancer Research suggest that by overcoming key cancer resistance
mechanisms, NUC-7738 has greater cytotoxic activity than Cordycepin against a
range of cancer cells.
Oxford researchers and their collaborators in Edinburgh
and Newcastle are now assessing NUC-7738 in the Phase 1 clinical trial
NuTide:701, which tests the drug in patients with advanced solid tumors that
were resistant to conventional treatment. Early results from the trial have
shown that NUC-7738 is well tolerated by patients and shows encouraging signs
of anti-cancer activity.
Sources and Additional Information:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078188
https://www.forij.co/blogs/mushrooms/cordyceps-mushroom-cancer
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-602/cordyceps