title: New scientific approaches to cancer treatment: can medicinal mushrooms defeat the curse of the century?
abstract: Modern science has spread so broadly and deeply within the nature of organisms that researchers have already established the molecular mechanisms of each vital process of human existence. Unfortunately, our age, heredity, lifestyle, race, and ethnicity are directly connected to the development and expression of many negative and even fatal processes, such as carcinogenesis. Many investigators have shown that the roots of carcinogenesis are hidden in the signaling pathways of cancer cells. Therefore, the pharmacological modulation of intracellular signal transduction pathways and the activation of transcription factors regulating gene expression represent a new and attractive therapeutic approach to cancer. It is already well established that medicinal mushrooms represent a potential source for biologically active compounds with immunomodulating, free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, and anticancer activities. Moreover, low-molecular weight mushroom substances have been studied, and reported to interact with particular intracellular signaling pathways related to processes such as inflammation, cell differentiation and survival, apoptosis, angiogenesis, tumor progression and metastasis, etc. The present work compiles the available data on mushroom substances, in the form of extracts or chemically defined compounds, known to interfere with the above-mentioned essential processes related to the carcinogenesis and, thus, representing a new scientific approach to cancer treatment and prevention.
authors.affiliation: Bulgarian Mycological Society, 23 Acad. G. Bonchev St., Sofia 1113, Bulgaria. rumiana_petrovabg@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Roumyana D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Petrova
mesh_terms: D000363:Agaricales / Q000737:chemistry*; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017209:Apoptosis; D059447:Cell Cycle Checkpoints; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents