Reactive oxygen/nitrogen species generated in the human body can cause oxidative damage associated with many degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis, dementia, coronary heart diseases, aging, and cancer. There is a great interest in developing new antioxidants from Ganoderma fungus due to its low toxicity. As part of our ongoing search for antioxidative constituents from the fruiting bodies of Ganoderma lucidum, the chemical constituents were investigated and seven secondary metabolites, including one new lanostane triterpene (1), two known aromatic meroterpenoids (6–7), and four known triterpenes (2–5), were isolated by a series of chromatographic methods. The structures of the seven compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic techniques. The isolated compounds were tested in vitro for antioxidant potencies and neuroprotective activities against H₂O₂ and aged Aβ-induced cell death in SH-SY5Y cells. As a result, compounds 1, 6, and 7 exhibited potent antioxidant and neuroprotective activities. Additionally, all isolated compounds were tested for radical scavenging activities. Compounds 6 and 7 showed the comparable free radical scavenging activities with the standard drug in both ABTS (2, 2’-azobis (3-ethylbenzothiazole-6-sulfonaic acid)) and ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) experiments. The results from this study suggested that G. lucidum and its metabolites (especially the meroterpenoids) may be potential functional food ingredients for the antioxidation and prevention of neurogenerative diseases.

Although early life stress (ELS) can increase susceptibility to adulthood psychiatric disorders and produce a greater inflammatory response in a stressful event, targeted preventive and therapeutic drugs still remain scarce. Ganoderma lucidum triterpenoids (GLTs) can exert anti-inflammatory effects in the periphery and central nervous systems. This study employed a combined model of “childhood maternal separation + adulthood sub-stress” to explore whether GLTs may alleviate anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in male and female mice by mitigating inflammation. Male and female pups were separated from their mothers for four hours per day from postnatal day 1 (PND 1) to PND 21; starting from PND 56, GLTs were administered intraperitoneally once daily for three weeks and followed by three days of sub-stress. Results showed that maternal separation increased the anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in both male and female mice, which disappeared after the preemptive GLTs treatment (40 mg/kg) before adulthood sub-stress. Maternal separation up-regulated the pro-inflammatory markers in the periphery and brain, and activated microglia in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. All the abnormalities were reversed by GLTs administration, with no adverse effects on immune organ indices, liver, and renal function. Our findings suggest that GLTs can be a promising candidate in treating ELS-induced psychiatric disorders.

Deregulation of the Wnt signaling pathway leads to colorectal cancer progression. Natural dietary compounds serve as promising candidates for development as chemopreventive agents by suppressing the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Physalis peruviana-derived 4βHWE showed a significant inhibitory activity with a calculated IC₅₀ of 0.09 μΜ in a screening of novel inhibitors of Wnt signaling with the dual-luciferase reporter assay. This study investigated the anti-tumor effect of 4βHWE and the potential Wnt signaling inhibitory mechanism. Both the western blot analysis and immunofluorescence assay showed that 4βHWE promoted the phosphorylation and degradation of β-catenin and the subsequent inhibition of its nuclear translocation to attenuate the endogenous Wnt target gene expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. The cell viability assay indicated that 4βHWE preferentially inhibited the proliferation of CRC compared with CCD-841-CoN, a normal human colonic epithelial cell line. 4βHWE-mediated G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction contributed to the suppression of the proliferation of CRC in the cell cycle and Annexin V-FITC/Propidium Iodide apoptosis analysis. Moreover, in vivo, 4βHWE dramatically inhibited tumor growth in HCT116 xenografts by attenuating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. In conclusion, our study suggested that 4βHWE could be of potential use in anti-tumor agent development as a novel Wnt signaling inhibitor.

Fucoidans and alginates extracted from Sargassum graminifolium showed significant activities of anti-food allergy and regulating intestinal microbiota, and the relationship between intestinal microbiota and anti-food allergies effects was close.