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Abstract Background and Objective: Ganoderma lucidum, with its medicinal characteristics, is one of the most beneficial fungi in traditional Asian medicine. This fungus low efficiency of ganoderic acid production has limited its use as a valuable secondary metabolite. Environmental stresses and elicitors such as microbial volatile organic compounds in co-cultures can increase ganoderic acid production. To investigate effects of variables of co-culture time and volume on Ganoderma lucidum growth and ganoderic acid production, Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger were aerially co-cultured with Ganoderma lucidum. Material and Methods: To investigate fungus growth and production of ganoderic acid using bubble column bioreactor, effects of independent variables of temperature, initial inoculation, length-to-diameter ratio (L: D) and aeration were investigated using Taguchi method. Then, effects of co-culture of Ganoderma lucidum with Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger under optimum conditions were investigated. Results and Conclusion: Optimizing effects of co-culture time and volume variables led to 2.9-fold increases in production of ganoderic acid, compared to the control sample. Optimization of biomass production in the bioreactor showed that biomass production increased significantly by increasing the initial inoculation percentage and temperature. These two variables significantly affected ganoderic acid production and its optimum production point was 10% of initial inoculation, temperature of 25.6 °C, L: D of 4:8 and aeration rate of 0.64 vvm. Gas holdup investigation for air-water and air-fermentation media systems showed that the presence of suspended solids and aeration rate affected gas holdup. Microbial volatile organic compounds in co-culture of microorganisms can increase ganoderic acid production by Ganoderma lucidum. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Background: One of the medicinal fungi that has been used in traditional medicine for a long time is the Basidiomycete fungus Fomes fomentarius, which is widely distributed in Iran. Polysaccharides as one of the metabolites of this fungus have anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-cancer properties. Materials & Methods: Optimization of independent variables of MgSO4.7H2O concentration, initial pH, yeast extract, and inoculum percentage to increase biomass and polysaccharide production of F. fomentarius was investigated using the Taguchi method. Then, the biological properties of the produced polysaccharide including antibacterial activity was investigated by bacterial colony counting method, antioxidant activity using DPPH free radical, and antiproliferative effect on 5 cancer cell lines MKN-45, AGS, A549, KYSE-30 and 5637 using MTS test. Results: The concentration of MgSO4.7H2O and initial pH had a significant effect (P A549 5637> AGS> MKN-45). This effect increases with increasing concentration. In KYSE-30 cell line treatment with 200 g/mL polysaccharide, cell viability reaches 40% after 72 hours. Conclusion: Optimizing the culture medium of the medicinal fungus Fomes fomentarius increases the production of polysaccharides up to 5.410 g/L. Optimization increases the biological activity of polysaccharides. Antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli is 50% and 25%, respectively. The antioxidant activity of polysaccharides is 16.11% and the viability of KYSE-30 cancer cells reaches 40% after 72 hours.

Selenium (Se) is one of the essential elements for human health, where Se-containing compounds can prevent cancer and reduce mortality by regulating of the cell cycle and apoptosis. Exopolysaccharides from Fomes fomentarius have been used in traditional medicine to treat cancer. It appears that the combination of Se and fungal polysaccharides may be more effective. The effect of adding Na2SeO3 to the culture medium of the Iranian medicinal fungus F. fomentarius is investigated in this study. Adding 20 mg/L Na2SeO3 to the culture medium changed the F. fomentarius morphology and improved the structure of exopolysaccharides. Several methods, including FTIR, EDS, and ICP-OES, confirmed the presence of Se in the exopolysaccharides of F. fomentarius. The results demonstrated that the addition of Na2SeO3 increased the antibacterial activity against S.aureus (60%) and antioxidant activity (17.4%) significantly (p

Objective Poly [2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphoryl choline (MPC)-co-n-buthyl methacrylate (BMA)-co-p-nitrophenyl-oxycrabonyl poly ethylene glycol-methacrylate (ME- ONP)] (PMBN), a biocompatible terpolymer, is a unique polymer with applications that range from drug delivery systems (DDS) to scaffolds and biomedical devices. In this research, we have prepared a monomer of p-nitrophenyl-oxycarbonyl poly (ethylene glycol) methacrylate (MEONP) to synthesize this polymer. Next, we designed and prepared a smart, water soluble, amphiphilic PMBN polymer composed of MPC, BMA, and MEONP. Materials and Methods In this experimental study, we dissolved MPC (4 mmol, 40% mole fraction), BMA (5 mmol, 50% mole fraction), and MEONP (1 mmol, 10% mole fraction) in 20 ml of dry ethanol in two necked flasks equipped with inlet-outlet gas. The structural characteristics of the synthesized monomer and polymer were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analyses for the first time. We treated the polymer with two different cell lines to determine its biocompatibility. Results FT-IR and H-NMR analyses confirmed the synthesis of the polymer. The size of polymer was approximately 40 nm with a molecular weight (MW) of 52 kDa, which would be excellent for a nano carrier. Microscopic analyses showed that the polymer was rodshaped. This polymer had no toxicity for individual cells. Conclusion We report here, for the first time, the full properties of the PMBN polymer. The approximately 40 nm size with an acceptable zeta potential range of -8.47, PDI of 0.1, and rod-shaped structure indicated adequate parameters of a nanopolymer for nano bioapplications. We used this polymer to design a new smart nano carrier to treat leukemia stem cells based on a target DDS as a type of bio-application.