Mushroom to treat cancer

Cornelia de Moor of University of Nottingham and her team have examined a drug called cordycepin, extracted from a 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. Properties attributed to cordyceps mushroom in Chinese medicine makes it interesting.

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.