Frontiers in Pharmacology (Jun 2020)

Recombinant Ganoderma lucidum Immunomodulatory Protein Improves the Treatment for Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia

  • Xinhua Lei,
  • Chenyang Zhi,
  • Wei Huang,
  • Xilin Sun,
  • Weiyang Gao,
  • Xue Yin,
  • Xin Zhang,
  • Chongyang Liang,
  • Haoran Zhang,
  • Fei Sun

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00956
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Ganoderma lucidum, also known as LINGZHI, has a long tradition of use in folk medicine of the Far East, which is documented in the oldest Chinese pharmacopoeia, declaring it a superior medicine. LINGZHI-8 (LZ-8) is an immunoregulatory fungal protein isolated from the fruiting body of Ganoderma lucidum. Neutropenia is a condition with an abnormally low levels of neutrophils in the blood, which is caused by numerous medical conditions or medications, such as chemotherapy. The current study demonstrated that recombinant LZ-8 (rLZ-8) from Pichia promoted the differentiation of bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) into granulocytes in a neutropenia mouse model induced by cyclophosphamide. Also, it regulated the CXCR4-SDF1 axis to promote the mobilization of HSCs and the release of neutrophils from the bone marrow to peripheral blood. Binding of rLZ-8 to the colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) promotes the differentiation of HSCs into primitive CFU colonies. These results suggested that rLZ-8 has a potential effect in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.

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