Ganoderic Acid for Anticancer Applications: Scope of Nanomedicine in Its Effective Delivery

Abstract

Ganoderma lucidum is a mushroom; traditionally, it has been used from long history of medicinal use in China, Japan, and Korea. The main active constituents of Ganoderma lucidum is ganoderic acid (GA). GA is a triterpenoid, which is derived from lanosterol. Since several decades, the fruiting bodies of Ganoderma fungi have been widely used for human healthcare applications. GA has been reported for treatment of several dreadful disorders including hepatoprotective, hepatocellular carcinoma, immunomodulating action, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antioxidants, and free radical scavenging action. The most active constituent related to the biological action is GA-DM, which is obtained from G. lucidum. This chapter discussed GA-DM as potential therapeutic candidate for treatment of number of diseases as an alternative or supplemental therapeutic agent in treating various cancer. Therefore, the mechanistic action of GA-DM is also discussed, which is capable of inducing cell death in cancer cells by action such as immunostimulant, apoptotic, and autophagic pathways in various cancer. Overall, this chapter extensively covers the history of G. lucidum and its traditional use and therapeutic application against cancer with molecular mechanism based on in vitro and in vivo experiments.