185 | From mycelium to medicine: cytotoxic effects of Ganoderma adspersum extracts in renal cancer cells

Maria Noemi Sgobba¹, Nikola Schlosserova^1|2, Biagia Musio³, Federica Mastropirro¹, Antonio Radesco⁴, Maria Favia⁵, Simona Marianna Sanzani⁴, Stefano Todisco³, Mariateresa Volpicella¹, Anna De Grassi¹, Vito Gallo³, Elena Ciani¹, Ciro Leonardo Pierri⁶, Jakub Treml⁷, Lorenzo Guerra¹ | ¹Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Environment, University of Bari, Italy; ²Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic; ³Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry DICATECh, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy; ⁴Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari, Italy; ⁵Department of Translational Biomedicine and Neurosciences DiBraiN, University of Bari, Italy; ⁶Department of Pharmacy – Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bari, Italy; ⁷Department of Molecular Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Natural matrices have historically represented important sources of potential drug leads, with their use documented in traditional medicine as remedies, potions, and oils. Despite challenges associated with the identification and isolation of bioactive compounds from natural products, their remarkable chemical diversity continues to stimulate research interest in this field. In this context, Ganoderma adspersum is an emerging medicinal fungus known for its bioactive properties, including antibacterial, anticholinesterase, and antioxidant activities. Although preliminary studies have reported antiproliferative effects against breast cancer cells, its activity against other cancer types remains poorly investigated. In this study, we evaluated the antiproliferative potential of ethanolic extracts of G. adspersum against human renal cancer cells using complementary experimental approaches, including cell viability assays, apoptosis assessment, and protein expression analysis. Both extracts were tested in vitro on human renal cancer cell lines Caki-1, 786-O, and RCC-Shaw, as well as on non-tumor human renal HK-2 cells. Notably, only the mycelium-derived ethanolic extract demonstrated significant antiproliferative activity, reducing cell viability by more than 80% in both 786-O and RCC-Shaw cells after 72 hours by inducing apoptosis activation, and not affecting non-tumor HK-2 renal cells. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed substantial compositional differences between the two extracts, such us succinic acid, alanine and adenosine. Overall, our findings highlight the potential of G. adspersum mycelium extract as a selective and non-toxic source of bioactive compounds.