Nowadays, the resistance of microorganisms to antibacterial substances and their survival in the form of a biofilm pose two major problems in medicine and industry. Therefore, great importance is devoted to research in which we aim to discover new bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity, as well as anti-adhesive activity to prevent the formation of biofilm and enable its removal. In many studies, higher fungi have proven to be an excellent source of new bioactive compounds with this type of activity. Due to their various effects, they have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, yet they are still considered a relatively unexplored source.
In addition to testing the different effects of the extracts (e. g. antibacterial effect) on bacteria, it is also necessary to determine their toxicity to human cells in vitro, to ensure suitability for potential use. In our research, we determined the cytotoxic effect of aqueous extracts of seven higher fungi on the human colon cancer cell line Caco-2 and presented the results as IC50 values. Extracts were obtained from the fungi Caloboletus calopus, Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, Tylopilus felleus, Boletus erythropus, Amanita muscaria, and Amanita citrina. According to the criteria given by the NCI (National Cancer Institute), which divides the cytotoxic activity of crude extracts into four groups, we determined that the extracts of C. calopus, A. muscaria and A. citrina are inactive (IC50> 501 µg/mL); extracts of T. felleus, B. erythropus and B. reticulatus are weakly active (IC50 201-500 µg/mL) and extract of P. gelatinosum is moderately active (IC50 21-200 µg/mL). With these findings, extracts of the fungi C. calopus, A. muscaria and A. citrina can be suggested as the most suitable for further research and potential clinical use. Due to the different edibility of the tested fungi, we also took in consideration this type of association with cytotoxic activity and found that these attributes do not relate to each other.
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