Perspectives of biomedical application of macrofungi

. Mushrooms (macrofungi) have widely been appreciated all over the world for both their nutritional values and medicinal properties. They have been used in traditional medicine for more than 3000 years for prevention and treatment of different diseases. Modern scientific research shows that mushrooms are producers of a broad spectrum of high- and low-molecular-weight bioactive compounds, i.e., alkaloids, polysaccharides, proteins, phenolics, terpenoids, polyketides, cyclic peptides, lectins and ribosome-inactivating proteins. They have various therapeutic effects as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, hypocholesterolemic, hypotensive, immunomodulatory, neuroprotective and regenerative activities, and possess promising pharmacological potential. Development of fungal biotechnological cultivation industry will support production of mushroom-derived biotech products, healthy food and pharmaceuticals. Further advances in fungal biology and biotechnology, genomics and proteomics will assist biomedical research and application of mushrooms.


INTRODUCTION
Fungi are very diverse organisms distributed worldwide and found in almost all habitats. From estimated 1.5-3 million species of fungi about 150,000 species are mushrooms (macrofungi) taxonomically placed in two phyla, the Basidiomycota (class Agaricomycetes) and Ascomycota (class Pezizomycetes) in the subkingdom Dikarya [1]. Among the fungal species about 10% (14,000-16,000) are scientifically well-known including, about 7000 edible species and 500 poisonous species [2,3]. There may be as many as 700 medicinal mushrooms which are regarded safe and possess around 130 different pharmacological activities [4,5].

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Nowadays, pharmaceutical companies consider the medicinal mushrooms as a rich source of innovative biomedical molecules extracted not only from fruiting bodies but also from both cultivated mycelial biomass and cultural broth. Moreover, the mycelium and the cultural broth might be considered as potential sources of bioactive compounds, due to their shorter incubation time and affordable culture conditions (e.g., requiring less space, low probability of contamination, and higher production of biomass) [12,36,43].
The advances in multidimensional biotechnological cultivation industry of mushrooms will further support development and application of mushroom-derived biotech products and pharmaceuticals in biomedicine [7,19,20].
Currently, in vitro assays, animal studies, and clinical trials justify the experience of traditional medicine and suggest a great potential of mushroom-derived compounds and pharmaceuticals for both the prevention and treatment of various diseases. However, development of high-quality mushrooms-based biotech products under controlled conditions with standardized procedures for further clinical trials are needed to substantiate the pharmacological properties or side effects of mushroom consumption before their clinical recommendation as myco-pharmaceuticals [36,[53][54][55][56].
Compared to available extensive lists of mushrooms' bioactive compounds and therapeutic effects, the pathways of their biosynthesis and the genes behind are largely understudied [19]. Therefore, advances in fungal biology and biotechnology, genomics and proteomics are required for further biomedical research and application of macrofungi.