Cambodian Phellinus linteus inhibits experimental metastasis of melanoma cells in mice via regulation of urokinase type plasminogen activator.

Phellinus linteus (PL) is a fungus mainly found in tropical America, Africa and Asian countries including Korea, Japan and China. PL has been traditionally used for the treatment of arthritis, liver damage and cancer. However, little was known on the biological activity and characterization of Phellinus species in Cambodia. Thus, in the present study, the anti-metastatic mechanism of aqueous extract of Cambodian Phellinus linteus (CPL) was evaluated. Cambodian mushroom was identified as a Phellinus species with 99% homology of Phellinus linteus by DNA sequence analysis and comparison by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. CPL did not exhibit any significant cytotoxicity against B16BL6 cells, invasive melanoma cells at 1 mg/ml. However, CPL inhibited platelet aggregation induced by B16BL6 cells and also disrupted the adhesion to gelatin and invasion of B16BL6 cells in a concentration dependent manner. Similarly, CPL dose-dependently inhibited the pulmonary metastatic colonies in C57BL/6 mice intravenously injected by B16BL6 cells up to 55.5% at a dose of 50 mg/kg compared with untreated control. CPL also down-regulated the expression of urokinase type plasminogen activator (uPA), one of key proteins associated with invasion and metastasis of tumor cells in a concentration dependent fashion, while CPL didn't significantly affect the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP-2) by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Taken together, these findings indicate that Cambodian Phellinus linteus may inhibit metastasis at least partly via regulation of uPA associated with tumor cell induced platelet aggregation (TCIPA) and also suggest a further study for isolation of active ingredients and the involvement of adhesion molecule signaling pathway.