Antimutagenicity and cytotoxicity of cordycepin isolated from Cordyceps militaris

This study was carried out to examine the antimutagenic and anticancer effects of cordycepin isolated from the butanol fraction of Cordyceps militaris. The cordycepin itself did not show any mutagenic effect against the mutagenesis induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO), benzo (alpha)pyrene (B(alpha)P) and 3-amino-1,4-dimethyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indol (Trp-P-1) using the Ames test. The cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine, 100 mug/plate) showed inhibitory effects of approximately 85.0%, 52.5% and 32.7% on the mutagenesis induced by 4NQO, B(alpha)P and Trp-P-1 against strain TA98 respectively. Inhibitory effects of 70.2%, 73.1%, 81.7% and 67.7% were also observed on the mutagenesis induced by MNNG, 4NQO, B(alpha)P and Trp-P-1 against strain TA 100 respectively. The treatment of 100 mug/well cordycepin showed the strongest of 90.0% against A549 cell line (human lung carcinoma) among other cancer cell line, whereas the least cytotoxicity only 11.3% was abserved on human normal cell 293.