The culinary-medicinal mushroom Coprinus comatus as a natural antiandrogenic modulator

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in men. Chemotherapy, androgen ablation, and androgen antagonist treatments have proven to have significant effects in the early stages of prostate cancer, whereas advanced prostate cancer is resilient to such treatments. The androgen receptor (AR), a ligand-dependent transcription factor, is the major drug target of prostate cancer therapy. Transition to the androgen-independent stage involves the activation of signaling pathways, AR gene mutations, and other mechanisms. Higher basidiomycetes mushrooms have been used since ancient times in folk medicine to treat a diversity of diseases, including cancer. The present study evaluates the antiandrogenic activity of different Coprinus comatus strains in their ability to interfere with AR function. The authors found that the most active extract was C comatus strain 734 extracted with hexane (CC734-H). This extract was able to (1) inhibit AR-mediated reporter activity, (2) inhibit the proliferation and viability of the LNCaP cell line, and (3) inhibit the colony formation of the LNCaP cell line, in comparison to the DU-145, PC-3, and MDA-Kb2 cells. In addition, CC734-H was able to reduce AR levels and prostate-specific antigen gene expression in the LNCaP-treated cell line. This study illustrates the potential of the C comatus mushroom as a natural antiandrogenic modulator that could serve in the treatment of prostatic diseases.