Pleurotus Eous mushroom lectin (PEL) with mixed carbohydrate inhibition and antiproliferative activity on tumor cell lines.

A novel Pleurotus eous mushroom lectin (PEL) having mixed binding specificity was purified to homogeneity from the fruitbodies of P. eous. The lectin showed monomer weight of 16 kDa and was a glycoprotein having a 9% neutral sugar content. The antiproliferative activity of PEL was tested on four human tumor cell lines. A 50% inhibition of proliferation was demonstrated in MCF-7, K562 and Hep2 cell lines at the lowest concentration (2 microg/ml) of lectin tested. SK-N-MC cell line showed 50% inhibition at 50 microg/ml of PEL. The inhibitory activity of PEL was not associated with toxicity to cell lines.