Mushrooms, long valued for their medicinal properties, are being explored as tools to boost immunity and fight viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Gordon Saxe, director of research at the Centers for Integrative Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, is the principal investigator of three studies evaluating whether mushrooms are therapeutic for treating COVID-19.
During the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Andrew Shubov, director of inpatient integrative medicine at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, said he was frustrated by the lack of effective treatments for COVID-19. “People were taking increasingly toxic drugs, and nothing was working,” he told JAMA.
Three Studies Underway Using Mushrooms to Treat COVID-19
Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19, known as MACH-19, is a multicenter study led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UCLA. Their trials, which are still recruiting subjects, involve people who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and are quarantined at home with mild to moderate symptoms.An extract of the three was found to significantly reduce bacteria in the blood and increase survival in mice with pneumococcal sepsis. Their anti-inflammatory effects also led to improvements in symptoms and quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Due to their antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties, “such mushroom extracts could have prophylactic or therapeutic effect against the pneumonic superinfection and severe lung inflammation that often complicates COVID-19 infection,” the researchers explained.
Long chain polysaccharides, particularly alpha and beta glucan molecules, are primarily responsible for mushrooms’ beneficial effect on your immune system. In one study, adding one or two servings of dried shiitake mushrooms was found to have a beneficial, modulating effect on immune system function.
While there are at least 126 medicinal functions attributed to mushrooms, polysaccharides have received special attention and been the subject of a number of research studies.
Chaga Mushroom Fights Flu
As noted in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary medicine, more than 14,000 species of mushrooms have been identified (it’s believed that more than 140,000 exist), with more than 2,000 of them being edible and/or medicinal.Some of these species hold promise for acting as antivirals against influenza viruses that can cause pandemics. Research from the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector in Russia, for instance, identified chaga mushrooms (Inonotus obliquus) as having the “widest range of antiviral activity” against different subtypes of influenza virus.
“Chaga mushrooms (grows mainly on the bark of birch trees in Northern Europe, Siberia, Russia, Korea, Northern Canada, and Alaska) possess a powerful enzymatic system and a strong system of defense due to their parasitic mode of life. They have shown promising results in attenuation of inflammatory responses that have been associated with COVID-19.”
Reishi Could Help Achieve a ‘COVID-Free World’
Other mushroom species have also been celebrated for their anti-COVID-19 potential, with reishi, also known as lingzhi, emerging as an exemplary player. As noted in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, functional foods and nutraceuticals made from medicinal mushrooms make sense in the fight against COVID-19:“COVID-19 manifests a multitude of illnesses, some of which are symptomatic while others are asymptomatic. Among them, immunological deregulation (i.e., the cytokine storm) is the most notable manifestation of COVID-19. Thus, modulation of the compromised immune system has become the focal point in combating COVID-19.
Immunomodulation is the regulatory process that maintains a balanced immune system: it does not allow all immune cells to be active altogether. In this regard, food and nutraceutical-based approaches boosting immune defense and modulating compromised immunity seem apt as a defense against COVID-19.”Mushrooms contain several immunomodulators, including lectins, proteins, polysaccharides and terpenoids, while there are more than 400 bioactive compounds in reishi mushrooms alone.
“Although the exact mechanism of anti-viral effect is not yet known, overall enhanced immunity seems apt. This enhancement might occur either through direct immune stimulation or through TRIM [trained immunity]. Thus, usage of β-D-glucan as both a therapeutic and prophylactic agent seems apposite.”
Strong Immunity Is Key, Mushrooms Help
Building strong immunity was described in the Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences as a “major weapon to fight against COVID-19.” The researchers listed many commonsense approaches to build strong immunity, ranging from sound sleep and meditation to vitamins C and D, along with medicinal mushrooms:“Medicinal mushrooms have been used since ancient times for prevention and treatment of infections and infectious diseases, different types of medicinal mushrooms have been studied for immunity boosting potential. Over 270 species of medicinal mushrooms are known to have immune enhancing properties, few examples include: cordyceps, lion‟s mane, maitake, shaitake, reishi, and turkey tail are beneficial for human health.”As one of nature’s most powerful immune builders, mushrooms also make a useful functional food in times of both good and ill health.
“As the preparation of mushroom powder is simple and does not require sophisticated handling and preservation processes, supplying mushroom powder to patients with COVID-19 and comorbidities around different parts of the globe would also be less cumbersome for aid agencies.”Basidiomycetes mushrooms, which include reishi, almong, pom-pom and maitake mushrooms, are traditionally consumed in China and Japan for cancer prevention due to their ability to modify the immune response and provide nutritional support during chemotherapy.
These mushrooms also show promise as both prophylactic and therapeutic remedies for COVID-19 as well as to help curb related immune overreaction and inflammation, as noted in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
