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Ethanolic extract from fruiting bodies of Cordyceps militaris HL8 exhibits cytotoxic activities against cancer cells, skin pathogenic yeasts, and postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum

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Abstract

Cordyceps militaris is a well-known medicinal mushroom in Asian countries. This edible fungus has been widely exploited for traditional medicine and functional food production. C. militaris is a heterothallic fungus that requires both the mating-type loci, MAT1-1 and MAT1-2, for fruiting body formation. However, recent studies also indicated two groups of C. militaris, including monokaryotic strains carrying only MAT1-1 in their genomes and heterokaryotic strains harboring both MAT1-1 and MAT1-2. These strain groups are able to produce fruiting bodies under suitable cultivating conditions. In previous work, we showed that monokaryotic strains are more stable than heterokaryotic strains in fruiting body formation through successive culturing generations. In this study, we report a high cordycepin-producing monokaryotic C. militaris strain (HL8) collected in Vietnam. This strain could form normal fruiting bodies with high biological efficiency and contain a cordycepin content of 14.43 mg/g lyophilized fruiting body biomass. The ethanol extraction of the HL8 fruiting bodies resulted in a crude extract with a cordycepin content of 69.15 mg/g. Assays of cytotoxic activity on six human cancer cell lines showed that the extract inhibited the growth of all these cell lines with the IC50 values of 6.41–11.51 µg/mL. Notably, the extract significantly reduced cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis of breast cancer cells. Furthermore, the extract also exhibited strong antifungal activity against Malassezia skin yeasts and the citrus postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum. Our work provides a promising monokaryotic C. militaris strain as a bioresource for medicine, cosmetics, and fruit preservation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Center for Experimental Biology, National Center for Technological Progress, Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, and the University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for the excellent infrastructure support.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Center for Technological Progress, Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Experimental Biology, National Center for Technological Progress, Ministry of Science and Technology, C6 Thanh Xuan Bac, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Viet Nam

    Tao Xuan Vu, Tram Bao Tran & Yen Thi Hoang Le

  2. Institute of Molecular Physiology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

    Hong-Ha Vu

  3. Center of Interdisciplinary Science and Education, Thai Nguyen University, Thai Nguyen, Viet Nam

    Phu Hung Nguyen

  4. Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Viet Nam

    Thao Thi Do

  5. Faculty of Basic Medicine, Hanoi University of Public Health, 1A Duc Thang, North Tu Liem, Hanoi, Viet Nam

    Thu-Huong Nguyen

  6. National Key Laboratory of Enzyme and Protein Technology, University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU), 334 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Viet Nam

    Van-Tuan Tran

  7. Faculty of Biology, University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU), 334 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Viet Nam

    Van-Tuan Tran

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  1. Tao Xuan Vu
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Contributions

TXV: conceived and designed the experiments; performed the experiments; analyzed and interpreted the data; and wrote the paper. TBT, H-HV, YTHL, PHN, TTD, T-HN: performed the experiments and analyzed and interpreted the data. V-TT: conceived and designed the experiments; analyzed and interpreted the data; and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Tao Xuan Vu or Van-Tuan Tran.

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Communicated by Ran Wang.

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Vu, T.X., Tran, T.B., Vu, HH. et al. Ethanolic extract from fruiting bodies of Cordyceps militaris HL8 exhibits cytotoxic activities against cancer cells, skin pathogenic yeasts, and postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum. Arch Microbiol 206, 97 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-024-03833-8

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