Toxicity Mechanisms and Potential Uses of Extracted Mushroom Toxins - Amatoxin, Antamanide, Muscurine

Abstract

Mushroom, as a popular kind of wild edible fungi, has raised the attention of many scientists around the globe, due to the fact that increasing numbers of fatal mushroom poisoning cases worldwide have been reported each year. Therefore, to overcome the issue of fatality of mushrooms with an attempt to help people prevent mushroom poisoning, studying mushroom toxicology has become a significant topic to many biochemists; a growing number of researches are conducted focusing on mushroom toxins as well as their chemical properties and toxicity mechanism. In this review, properties and mechanisms of three major toxins (amatoxin, antamanide, muscarine) are chosen as the research focus. The three major toxins, which are extracted from wild mushrooms, will be summarized and studied based on past research findings. Our goals are trying to find possible treatments of each toxin as well as their potential usage in the pharmaceutical industry, which can be especially beneficial towards research of mushroom-extracted drug and food-poisoning toxicity treatment for further investigation and academic references.