By Xinhua
Los Angeles : Mushrooms can be used as "bio-factories" for the production of medicines beneficial to humans, a new study has shown.
This could be achieved by inserting new genes into mushrooms, said Charles Peter Romaine, professor of plant pathology at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU).
Romaine and his colleagues have developed a technique to genetically modify Agaricus bisporus – the button variety of mushroom, which is the predominant edible species worldwide.
One application of their technology is the use of mushrooms as factories for producing vaccines, antibodies and hormones like insulin as well as commercial enzymes such as cellulose for biofuels.
"There has always been a recognized potential of the mushroom as being a choice platform for the mass production of commercially valuable proteins," Romaine said.
"Mushrooms could make the ideal vehicle for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals to treat a broad array of human illnesses. But nobody has been able to come up with a feasible way of doing that."
"Right now medical treatment exists for about 500 diseases and genetic disorders, but thanks to the human genome project, before long new drugs will be available for thousands of other diseases," Romaine said.
"We need a new way of mass-producing protein-based drugs, which is economical, safe and fast. We believe mushrooms are going to be the platform of the future."
The findings appeared in EurekAlert, a website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Researchers point out that the process of producing biopharmaceuticals is potentially faster and cheaper with mushrooms than conventional technologies.
Unlike plants that have long growth cycles, "with mushrooms, we can use commercial technology to convert the vegetative tissue from mushroom strains stored in the freezer into vegetative seed. A crop from which drugs may be extracted could be ready in weeks", Romaine said.
A mushroom-based biofactory also would not require expensive infrastructure set up by major drug companies, he added.