Anti-tumor effect of β-glucan from Lentinus edodes and the underlying mechanism

β-Glucans are well known for its various bioactivities, but the underlying mechanism has not been fully understood. This study focuses on the anti-tumor effect and the potential mechanism of a branched β-(1, 3)-glucan (LNT) extracted from Lentinus edodes. The in vivo data indicated that LNT showed a profound inhibition ratio of ~75% against S-180 tumor growth, even significantly higher than the positive control of Cytoxan (~54%). Interestingly, LNT sharply promoted immune cells accumulation into tumors accompanied by cell apoptosis and inhibition of cell proliferation during tumor development. Furthermore, LNT not only up-regulated expressions of the tumor suppressor p53, cell cycle arrestin p21 and pro-apoptotic proteins of Bax and caspase 3/9, but also down-regulated PARP1 and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 expressions in tumor tissues. It was first found that LNT initiated p53-dependent signaling pathway to suppress cell proliferation in vitro, and the caspase-dependent pathway to induce cell apoptosis in vivo. The underlying anti-tumor mechanism was proposed that LNT activated immune responses to induce cell apoptosis through caspase 3-dependent signaling pathway and to inhibit cell proliferation possibly via p53-dependent signaling pathway in vivo. Besides, LNT inhibited angiogenesis by suppressing VEGF expression, leading to slow progression of tumors.