(1->6) linked β-glucan isolated from bioluminescent mushroom Neonothopanus gardneri and its cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines.

Many basidiomycetes have been widely used in biotechnological processes, mainly due to the production of bioactive polysaccharides. One of the most important these bioactives compounds are β-glucan which is constituted by glucose units. Extensive studies have been done on glucans isolated from fungi, but nothing yet is known about the glucans produced by Neonothopanus gardneri. This species is a type of basidiomycete bioluminescence, popularly known as “flor-de-coco” which is found exclusively in South America and have attracted much attention due your potential to emit green light and shows a good source of carbohydrates. Thus, the aim of this study was characterize the chemical structure and evaluate the antitumor activity of polysaccharides found in mycelial from N. gardneri. The aqueous extract was obtained from N. gardneri mycelium using the solvent accelerated extraction (ASE) technique. From the aqueous extract the polysaccharide fraction was obtained by precipitation with ethanol, followed by freezing and thawing processes, Fehling solution precipitation and dialysis
by membranes of 1000 KDa exclusion limit. From this purification was one type of glucan characterized by GC-MS and NMR spectroscopy. The main monosaccharide observed was glucose in percentages above 90%. The glycosidic linkage observed was of type 1→6 with β-configuration. The crude extract as well as the fractions obtained during the several steps were also evaluated for cytotoxic activity, using the kit MTT cell proliferation assay, which is designed to quantify by spectrophotometry cell growth, against four tumor cell lines (HT144, A549 and MCF-7), and no significant activity was observed as seen in table 1 there are values above 85.5 μg/mL suggesting that these polysaccharides may present antitumor activity through other mechanisms.