Neoergosterol-rich mushroom extract, resourced from wild edible mushroom Termitomyces heimii Natarajan, induces robust apoptosis against lung cancer

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The non-specificity of conventional cancer drugs imposes a significant obstacle in cancer treatment, so the development of a safe anti-cancer alternative by methodologically revisiting several traditional medicinal systems may be a possible way to get rid of this problem. Therefore, the present study evaluates the anti-cancer potentiality of one of the Asiatic and African regions’ widely popular edible and ethnobotanically significant termite mushroom, Termitomyces heimii Natarajan (T. heimii), against various cancers. The anti-proliferative and chemo-preventive potentiality of two different extracts of T. heimii was evaluated against a panel of eight cancer cell lines and normal cells through an MTT assay. In vitro screening highlights that the methanolic extract of T. heimii had the highest anti-proliferative potential against A549 cells and had a negligible effect on normal cells. The extract specifically induced robust apoptosis in A549 cells through augmentation of intracellular ROS, disrupting mitochondrial membrane polarity, thus ultimately resulting in caspase-dependent apoptosis in lung cancer cells. Post-treatment, down-regulation of anti-apoptotic BCL-2 coordinated up-regulation of BAX expression, and an elevated expression of p53 signified the p53-dependent apoptosis. Moreover, the mushroom extract restricted cellular migration in the palladin-dependent pathway by downregulating the expression of PALLADIN. LC-MS-based metabolomic profiling was conducted to identify the potential anti-cancer mycocompounds in the methanol extract. The metabolomic profiling analysis, followed by an in silico molecular docking study, identified a unique mycosterol, neoergosterol, as a possible anti-cancer compound in the mushroom extract. The present study concludes a novel mycocompound neoergosterol resourcing from Termitomyces heimii Natarajan, demonstrating selective robust apoptosis against non-small cell lung cancer cells and also provides a chemoprotective shield against normal cells, which holds great promise for future drug development to treat lung cancer.