In vitro evaluation of Cordyceps militaris as a potential radioprotective agent

Jeong,Min-Ho; Park,You-Soo; Jeong,Dong-Hyeok; Lee,Chang-Geun; Kim,Joong-Sun; Oh,Su-Jung; Jeong,Soo-Kyung; Yang,Kwangmo; Jo,Wol-Soon

doi:10.3892/ijmm.2014.1901

In vitro evaluation of Cordyceps militaris as a potential radioprotective agent

Authors:
- Min-Ho Jeong
- You-Soo Park
- Dong-Hyeok Jeong
- Chang-Geun Lee
- Joong-Sun Kim
- Su-Jung Oh
- Soo-Kyung Jeong
- Kwangmo Yang
- Wol-Soon Jo
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Affiliations: Department of Microbiology, Dong-A University College of Medicine, Busan 619-953, Republic of Korea, Research Center, Dong Nam Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Busan 619-953, Republic of Korea
Published online on: August 18, 2014 https://doi.org/10.3892/ijmm.2014.1901
Pages: 1349-1357

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Abstract

Radiation is an important component of therapy for a wide range of malignant conditions. However, it triggers DNA damage and cell death in normal cells and results in adverse side-effects. Cordyceps militaris (C. militaris), a traditional medicinal mushroom, produces the bioactive compound, cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine) and has multiple pharmacological activities, such as antitumor, antimetastatic, antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether CM-AE, an extract obtained from C. militaris exerts protective effects against radiation-induced DNA damage. The protective effects of CM-AE were compared with those of cordycepin. CM-AE effectively increased free radical scavenging activity and decreased radiation-induced plasmid DNA strand breaks in in vitro assays. CM-AE significantly inhibited the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cellular DNA damage in 2 Gy irradiated Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-K1 cells. Moreover, treatment with CM-AE induced similar levels of phosphorylated H2AX in the cells, which reflects the initial DNA double-strand breaks in the irradiated cells compared with the non-irradiated CHO-K1 cells. However, cordycepin did not show free radical scavenging activity and did not protect against radiation-induced plasmid DNA or cellular DNA damage. These results suggest that the free radical scavenging activity of CM-AE contributes towards its DNA radioprotective effects and that the protective effects of CM-AE are much more potent to those of cordycepin. The data presented in this study may provide useful information for the screening of potent radioprotective materials.

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