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Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety

Ascomycete Cordyceps fungi such as C. militaris, C. cicadae, and C. guangdongensis have been mass produced on artificial media either as food supplements or health additives while the byproducts of culture substrates are largely used as animal feed. The safety concerns associated with the daily cons...

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Autores principales: Chen, Bo, Sun, Yanlei, Luo, Feifei, Wang, Chengshu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7354514/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32575649
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12060410
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author Chen, Bo
Sun, Yanlei
Luo, Feifei
Wang, Chengshu
author_facet Chen, Bo
Sun, Yanlei
Luo, Feifei
Wang, Chengshu
author_sort Chen, Bo
collection PubMed
description Ascomycete Cordyceps fungi such as C. militaris, C. cicadae, and C. guangdongensis have been mass produced on artificial media either as food supplements or health additives while the byproducts of culture substrates are largely used as animal feed. The safety concerns associated with the daily consumption of Cordyceps fungi or related products are still being debated. On the one hand, the known compounds from these fungi such as adenosine analogs cordycepin and pentostatin have demonstrated different beneficial or pharmaceutical activities but also dose-dependent cytotoxicities, neurological toxicities and or toxicological effects in humans and animals. On the other hand, the possibility of mycotoxin production by Cordyceps fungi has not been completely ruled out. In contrast to a few metabolites identified, an array of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are encoded in each genome of these fungi with the potential to produce a plethora of as yet unknown secondary metabolites. Conservation analysis of BGCs suggests that mycotoxin analogs of PR-toxin and trichothecenes might be produced by Cordyceps fungi. Future elucidation of the compounds produced by these functionally unknown BGCs, and in-depth assessments of metabolite bioactivity and chemical safety, will not only facilitate the safe use of Cordyceps fungi as human food or alternative medicine, but will also benefit the use of mass production byproducts as animal feed. To corroborate the long record of use as a traditional medicine, future efforts will also benefit the exploration of Cordyceps fungi for pharmaceutical purposes.
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spelling pubmed-73545142020-08-05 Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety Chen, Bo Sun, Yanlei Luo, Feifei Wang, Chengshu Toxins (Basel) Review Ascomycete Cordyceps fungi such as C. militaris, C. cicadae, and C. guangdongensis have been mass produced on artificial media either as food supplements or health additives while the byproducts of culture substrates are largely used as animal feed. The safety concerns associated with the daily consumption of Cordyceps fungi or related products are still being debated. On the one hand, the known compounds from these fungi such as adenosine analogs cordycepin and pentostatin have demonstrated different beneficial or pharmaceutical activities but also dose-dependent cytotoxicities, neurological toxicities and or toxicological effects in humans and animals. On the other hand, the possibility of mycotoxin production by Cordyceps fungi has not been completely ruled out. In contrast to a few metabolites identified, an array of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are encoded in each genome of these fungi with the potential to produce a plethora of as yet unknown secondary metabolites. Conservation analysis of BGCs suggests that mycotoxin analogs of PR-toxin and trichothecenes might be produced by Cordyceps fungi. Future elucidation of the compounds produced by these functionally unknown BGCs, and in-depth assessments of metabolite bioactivity and chemical safety, will not only facilitate the safe use of Cordyceps fungi as human food or alternative medicine, but will also benefit the use of mass production byproducts as animal feed. To corroborate the long record of use as a traditional medicine, future efforts will also benefit the exploration of Cordyceps fungi for pharmaceutical purposes. MDPI 2020-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7354514/ /pubmed/32575649 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12060410 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Chen, Bo
Sun, Yanlei
Luo, Feifei
Wang, Chengshu
Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety
title Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety
title_full Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety
title_fullStr Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety
title_full_unstemmed Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety
title_short Bioactive Metabolites and Potential Mycotoxins Produced by Cordyceps Fungi: A Review of Safety
title_sort bioactive metabolites and potential mycotoxins produced by cordyceps fungi: a review of safety
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7354514/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32575649
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12060410
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