New Insights on the Mechanism of Action of Mushroom-Derived Cordycepin

Filed in archive Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics on December 23, 2009

Cordyceps militaris growing on a moth pupa.
© Malcolm Storey, 2001.

Researchers have obtained more insights into the mode of action of cordycepin, an anti-cancer compound originally extracted from a rare kind of wild mushroom called Cordyceps but is now prepared from a cultivated form.

The team has observed two effects on the cells: at a low dose cordycepin inhibits the uncontrolled growth and division of the cells and at high doses it stops cells from sticking together, which also inhibits growth. Both of these effects probably have the same underlying mechanism, which is that cordycepin interferes with how cells make proteins. At low doses cordycepin interferes with the production of mRNA, the molecule that gives instructions on how to assemble a protein. And at higher doses it has a direct impact on the making of proteins.

This research is due to be published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry and is available via early online publication.