A new research from New Queensland
University of Technology (QUT) has shown that a mushroom used in Asia
turned out to be completely successful in suppressing prostate tumour
development in mice during its early trials.
A compound, (PSP), which is extracted from the 'turkey tail' mushroom,
was found to suppress tumour formation in mice, according to an article
by Dr Patrick Ling, from the Australian Prostate Cancer Research
Centre-Queensland and Institute for Biomedical Health and Innovation
(IHBI).During the research trial, which was done in collaboration with The University of Hong Kong and Provital Pty Ltd, transgenic mice that developed prostate tumours were fed polysaccharopeptide (PSP), which was extracted from the turkey mushroom, for 20 weeks.
According to the findings, no tumours were found in any of the PSP-fed mice, whereas mice not given the treatment developed prostate tumours.
Dr Ling said that the results could be an important step towards fighting a disease.
"What we wanted to demonstrate was whether that compound could stop the development of prostate tumours in the first place. Importantly, we did not see any side effects from the treatment," he said.
"Our findings support that PSP may be a potent preventative agent against prostate cancer, possibly through targeting of the prostate cancer stem cell population," he added.
The article was published in journal PLoS ONE. (ANI)
