Effect of Agaricus bisporus exo-polysaccharides on MCF-7 breast cancer cell-line

The cultivated mushroom Agaricus bisporus is nowadays one of the most widely consumed mushrooms, which contains a high level of bioactive compounds with different pharmaceutical values. The current work aims to maximize the exopolysaccharide production from Agaricus bisporus using different substrate additives, and study their effect on gene expression, cell cycle and cell proliferation of MCF7 breast cancer cell line. Different substrate additives (tryptone, peptone, yeast extract, MgSO4, glucose, and sucrose) were investigated individually using submerged culture for production of mycelia and exopolysaccharides. Medium containing tryptone additive produced the highest yield of mycelial biomass, while highest amount of exopolysaccharides was produced from medium containing sucrose additive. Polysaccharide extract was applied on MCF-7 cell line using different concentrations and showed no cytotoxic effect with a decrease of cells proliferation activity by 30 % using 8000 mu g/ml extract concentration. QPCR was used for evaluation of different apoptotic gene expression; TNF alpha, p53, Caspase9, Bcl2, and Bax. The extract induced genes activity by 2 fold for TNF alpha and Caspase9, one fold for p53 and Bax, and only 0.8 fold for Bcl2. Assessment of apoptosis and cell cycle using flow cytometry revealed that polysaccharides arrest G1/G2 phase, resulting in 5.5 % apoptosis in treated cells.