Promising Anti-cancer Therapeutics From Mushrooms: Current Findings and Future Perceptions

Background: Nowadays, medicines derived from natural sources have drawn much attention as potential therapeutic agents in the suppression and treatment of cancer because of their low toxicity and fewer side effects. Objective: The present review aims to assess the currently available knowledge on the ethnomedicinal uses and pharmacological activities of bioactive compounds obtained from medicinal mushrooms towards cancer treatment. Methods: A literature search has been conducted for the collection of research papers from universally accepted scientific databases. These research papers and published book chapters were scrutinized to retrieve information on ethnomedicinal uses of mushrooms, different factors involved in cancer cell proliferation, clinical and in silico pharmaceutical studies made for possible treatments of cancer using mushroom derived compounds. Overall, 241 articles were retrieved and reviewed from the year 1970 to 2020, out of which 98 relevant articles were finally considered for the preparation of this review. Results: This review presents an update on the natural bioactive substances derived from medicinal mushrooms and their role in inhibiting the factors responsible for cancer cell proliferation. Along with it, the present review also provides information on the ethnomedicinal uses, solvents used for extraction of anti-cancer metabolites, clinical trials, and in silico studies that were undertaken towards anticancer drug development from medicinal mushrooms. Conclusion: The present review provides extensive knowledge on various anti-cancer substances obtained from medicinal mushrooms, their biological actions, and in silico drug designing approaches, which could form a basis for the development of natural anti-cancer therapeutics.