Parasites and RA Treatment

Scientists at The University of Nottingham are going down an interesting, and perhaps promising, research pathway…a parasitic one. Caterpillar fungi—known as Cordyceps—are rare parasites found on hibernating caterpillars in the mountains of Tibet. Cordycepin, one of the drugs found in these mushrooms, just may hold promise for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other maladies.

The research, published today in the academic journal RNA, was led by Cornelia de Moor, Ph.D. in the The University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy. It shows that cordycepin reduces inflammatory gene products in airway smooth muscle cells. Several studies have suggested that cordycepin could be an effective drug for a variety of conditions, including cancer, stroke, kidney damage and inflammatory lung disease but until now it was unclear how cordycepin could bring about so many different beneficial effects at the cellular level.

In the November 16, 2012 news release, Dr. de Moor said: “We have shown that cordycepin reduces the expression of inflammatory genes in airway smooth muscle cells by acting on the final step in the synthesis of their messenger RNAs (mRNAs) which carry the chemical blueprint for the synthesis of proteins. This process is called polyadenylation. Commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs either work much earlier in the activation of inflammatory genes, such as prednisone, or work on one of the final products of the inflammatory reaction (e.g. ibuprofen). These findings indicate that cordycepin acts by a completely different mechanism than currently used anti-inflammatory drugs, making it a potential drug for patients in which these drugs don’t work well. However, it is a surprise that cordycepin does not affect the synthesis of mRNAs from other genes, because nearly all mRNAs require polyadenylation.”

Dr. de Moor said: “We are hoping to further investigate which genes are more dependent on polyadenylation than others and why this is the case, as well as test the effect of cordycepin on animal models of disease. Clinical testing of cordycepin is not in our immediate plans, as we think we first have to understand this drug in more detail before we can risk treating patients with it.”

Dr. De Moor told OTW,

Cordycepin inhibits the induction of a wide spectrum of inflammatory genes it can therefore be expected to have similar benefits to prednisone. However, it works by a completely different mechanism and the side effects are likely to be different. As we have not yet tested cordycepin in animal models of RA, we do not know if it has benefits in RA. Remarkably, another recent publication indicates that long-term treatment with cordycepin has beneficial effects on the antioxidant production in ageing rats, and no adverse effects were reported in this study. Therefore, with the limited data we have, this drug looks promising, but more work is definitely required.

The team has in fact been awarded additional funding by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council that will enable them to continue this work.