Wild mushroom extract could treat cancer

An extract from a rare wild mushroom has shown promise in cancer treatment, says a new study.
Cornelia de Moor of University of Nottingham and her team have examined a drug called cordycepin, extracted from a rare kind of wild mushroom called cordyceps and is now prepared from a cultivated form.
'Our discovery will open up the possibility of investigating the range of different cancers that could be treated with cordycepin,' said de Moor.
'We have also developed a very effective method that can be used to test new, more efficient or more stable versions of the drug in the Petri dish,' added de Moor.
Cordyceps is a strange parasitic mushroom that grows on caterpillars. Properties attributed to cordyceps mushroom in Chinese medicine made it interesting to investigate.
The problem was that although cordycepin was a promising drug, it was quickly degraded in the body. It can now be given with another drug to help combat this, but the side effects of the second drug are a limit to its potential use.
'Because of technical obstacles and people moving on to other subjects, it's taken a long time to figure out exactly how cordycepin works on cells,' said de Moor, according to a Nottingham release.