Phenolic Acid Profiling of Extracts, Anti-Cancer Function and Its Molecular Mechanisms.

Cancer is still the leading cause of death across the world, and there is a lack of efficient therapies. is a mushroom with a food and medicine homology that contains numerous biologically active substances. This study aimed to investigate the composition of extracts from () and their anti-cancer function and molecular mechanisms. Our results showed that the total phenolic content of extracts was 139.46 ± 5.42 mg/g. The following six phenolic compounds were identified from extracts by HPLC and UPLC-QTOF/MS: gallic acid, pyrogallol, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, myricetin, and cinnamic acid. Colorectal cancer cell HCT116 and hepatic cancer cell HepG2 were used to evaluate the anti-cancer function of the extracts. Compared with HepG2 cells, the extracts showed stronger anti-cancer activity against HCT116 cells and these were used to study molecular mechanisms. The results indicated that the extracts could arrest the cancer cell cycle and inhibit cancer cell proliferation, which may be mediated by the MAPK/NFκB/AP-1 signalling pathway; the extracts also promoted cancer cell apoptosis through a mitochondrial-dependent pathway. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that ethanol extracts contain six main phenolics and illustrate the remarkable potentiality of as a source of natural phenolics for cancer prevention and as an adjuvant in the treatment of functional foods.