Cytotoxic activities of <i>Coriolus versicolor</i> (Yunzhi) extracts on human liver cancer and breast cancer cell line

Abstract

The CVP (Coriolus versicolor polysaccharide) is well known as anti-tumor drug in clinical applications. Although recent studies have demonstrated that CVP can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, the different purity level of CVP has a different affect on various cancer cells. In this study, the crude CVP was extracted from C. versicolor dry fruit bodies by hot-water extraction and ethanol
precipitation. The content of CVP was 7.74% in the fruit bodies, while 54.69% in the crude extracts by phenol-vitriolic colorimetry. After that, the in vitro cytotoxic activities of the CVP were examined on the
four human liver cancer (7703, HepG2, 7721, PLC) and four human breast cancer (Bcap37, ZR75-30, MCF-7, T-47D) cell lines using a MTT cytotoxicity assay. The results showed that the CVP inhibited the
proliferation of 7703, Bcap37, T-47D in low concentration; the IC50 values on 7703, Bcap37 and T-47D were 18.37, 14.42 and 9.29 mg/l, respectively. The CVP also inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 and
ZR75-30, but at high concentration, the IC50 values on MCF-7 and ZR75-30 were 39.26 and 34.59 mg/l, respectively. The CVP does not inhibit the proliferation of HepG2, 7721, PLC and human normal liver
cell line (WRL). The CVP was found to selectively inhibit the proliferation of human liver cancer and human breast cancer.