An update from the lab researching the potential applications of our UK native Lion's Mane tincture
Recent work from the research project part-funded by the Bristol Fungarium has shown some promising results from initial experiments with Lion’s Mane tincture on neuronal cells. Led by Dr Tim Craig, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at UWE (me!), the experiments looked at neurogenesis and insulin signalling as part of the larger project investigating neuroprotective effects of mushroom extracts.
In Alzheimer’s disease, there is evidence that brain cells (neurones) become insulin resistant, and that this might explain some of the link between Type-2 Diabetes (also associated with insulin resistance) and Alzheimer’s Disease. Our experiments tested the activity of the insulin signalling pathway in neuronal cells by looking at the activity of a protein called Akt. This is done by a technique called Western blotting which produces rather boring-looking black-on-grey bands (see picture below). The size of the bands shows how active Akt is, so by looking at this result we can see that there is more activity in the cells treated with the Lion’s Mane tincture than the control. We can summarise the results of several experiments in a graph, showing we have approximately double the Akt activity in the treated cells.
What does this mean?
Well it doesn’t mean that people with diabetes can ditch their medication and use Lion’s Mane instead (please always follow your doctor’s advice!). But it does mean it’s possible that Lion’s Mane can increase the sensitivity of some cells to insulin. We need to do a lot more experiments to work out exactly what is going on and how it works, but these initial results are very promising.
Secondly, we looked at how Lion’s Mane affects the process of neurogenesis. This is a process whereby new neurones are made in the brain, which happens throughout life but is reduced in Alzheimer’s Disease. To do this, we take neuronal precursor cells (in this case we used a neuroblastoma cell line), differentiating them into neurones and looking at how this process is affected by the Lion’s Mane tincture.
The pictures below have 3 colours on them – blue shows the nuclei of the cells (where they keep their DNA), red shows the neuronal processes (also called axons) and green shows a protein called synaptophysin, which is really important for synapse formation. Synapses are, if you like, the ‘thinking unit’ of neurones – they are how neurones communicate with each other, and we know levels of these are reduced in Alzheimer’s disease. Hopefully you can see that the cells treated with the Lion’s Mane tincture have a lot more green in their processes – this possibly shows that they are producing more synapses.
Control cells
Lion's Mane treated cells
What does this mean?
Well again, it doesn’t mean that Lion’s Mane is a cure for Alzheimer’s disease! But it certainly looks as if, from this preliminary experiment, that Lion’s Mane tincture increases synapse formation in the cell system we are using. We need to do a lot of repeating and verifying of these results to be sure, but it’s a very exciting early indication!