Cytotoxic activity of Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese isolated from the Lower Volta River Basin of Ghana against human prostate carcinoma (PC-3), leukemic T cell (Jurkat), and plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC)-derived acute leukemia (PMDC05) cell lines

TL;DR

A Ghanaian Ganoderma fungus shows selective cytotoxic effects on prostate, leukemia, and dendritic cell-derived cancer cell lines.

Contribution

First demonstration of Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese's selective cytotoxicity against specific human cancer cell lines.

Findings

Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese fractions inhibited PC-3, Jurkat, and PMDC05 cancer cell proliferation with low IC50 values.

The cytotoxic effect was selective, with significantly higher IC50 observed in normal Chang liver cells.

Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the isolate belongs to the Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese species complex.

Abstract

Ganoderma is a genus of medically important fungus that contains at least 80 species, many of which have not been properly evaluated for their anticancer potential. This study was conducted to assess the cytotoxic activity of the mycelial biomass of Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese isolated from the Lower Volta River Basin of Ghana. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was analyzed to determine the phylogenetic position of this native ganoderma isolate. We then tested its cytotoxic activity against the human carcinoma cell line PC-3 (human prostate), Jurkat (human T lymphoblastoid cell line), derived from an acute T cell leukemia, and PMDC05, a plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) derived from acute leukemia using the 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The ITS phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that this native Ghanaian ganoderma isolate belongs to the Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese species complex. Fractions of the mycelial biomass were found to inhibit significantly (≤ 0.05%) the proliferation and survival of the three cancer cell lines, PC-3, PMDC05, and Jurkat with increasing concentrations and with IC50 values of 27.73 ± 5.25, 21.31 ± 2.40 and 17.09 ± 0.86 μg/mL, respectively compared to Chang liver cells (CVCL_0238) with IC50 value of 75.41 ± 1.95 μg/mL. To the best of our knowledge, these findings demonstrated for the first time, that specific constituents of Ganoderma weberianum-sichuanese are selectively cytotoxic to the three human cancer cell lines, suggesting their potential efficacy in the treatment of malignancies. Future studies to isolate and characterize the biologically active molecules are warranted.

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