You mentioned wanting to test at different doses to see where the effect goes away. Can you be more specific about the doses you would test? Would you test higher or lower than the range you tested in class this semester?
Based on the results obtained, it was clear that the Turkey Tail Mushroom extract was statistical hit for a potential chemotherapeutic agent when combined with radiation at doses 1.0 mg/mL and 0.5mg/mL. Although that dose at 0.125 mg/mL appears to yield as a statistical hit, this dose was only tested once and would not consider it a hit at this concentration. Furthermore, the dose at 0.25 mg/mL of the extract did not yield as a statistical hit. Therefore I would perform the test between 1.0 mg/mL to 0.25mg/mL doses, to determine the concentration at which the efficacy of the extract drops off or “effect goes away”. I would focus on the lower range because the efficacy tested at the dose of 1.0 mg/mL, which we determined to be the highest concentration, yielded as a hit for a potential chemotherapy when tested combination with radiation.
I’m also curious about dosage, if you are able to do trials with mice, how do you think doses will be different? Do you foresee any challenges with determining a dose for a different organism?
Hello Erin,
While Drosophila has 75% of genes that attribute to disease in humans, mice also obtain 85% identical protein coding genes. Therefore if I was able to do the trial with mice, I would begin by testing Turkey Tail Mushroom extract at 1 mg/mL as I did with Drosophila Melanogaster. I absolutely expect doses to be different. Concentration of important metabolites differ from organism to organism and that will definitely effect how one organism is affected or metabolize a compounds. I see that determining doses at which this extract is effective in mice and down the line in humans will be complicated and difficult.
Hello Cooper,
We were influenced by our instructor Dr. Harvey to test compound through a series of dilution. We chose 1:2 dilution series. The benefits of testing various doses is incredibly beneficial to creating a dose response curve in determining efficacy, but it is also significant in identifying the different outcomes that may occur at varying doses. Different doses can do different things in our bodies, concentration of a substance or molecules can have varying effects in our bodies and knowing those effects can be incredibly helpful.
Hi Alden,
Turkey Tail Mushroom have been used for medicinal purposes in Asian countries, such as China, for thousands of year as they boost the immune system that is vital in fighting against diseases such as cancer. The extract from Turkey Tail mushroom contains PSK, an active component, that is currently commonly used as combinatorial treatment for cancer therapy in Japan. There were research articles also which stated success found in using PSK as combinatorial cancer treatment. An example, in Gastric cancer patients, the survival rate of treatment with PSK was 86.8% compared to the control group without PSK was 60%. Based on these research, we were able to hypothesize that the percent survival of Drosophila upon exposure to Turkey tail mushroom extract containing PSK will be lower when compared to the exposure to the negative control DMSO.
You mentioned wanting to test at different doses to see where the effect goes away. Can you be more specific about the doses you would test? Would you test higher or lower than the range you tested in class this semester?
Based on the results obtained, it was clear that the Turkey Tail Mushroom extract was statistical hit for a potential chemotherapeutic agent when combined with radiation at doses 1.0 mg/mL and 0.5mg/mL. Although that dose at 0.125 mg/mL appears to yield as a statistical hit, this dose was only tested once and would not consider it a hit at this concentration. Furthermore, the dose at 0.25 mg/mL of the extract did not yield as a statistical hit. Therefore I would perform the test between 1.0 mg/mL to 0.25mg/mL doses, to determine the concentration at which the efficacy of the extract drops off or “effect goes away”. I would focus on the lower range because the efficacy tested at the dose of 1.0 mg/mL, which we determined to be the highest concentration, yielded as a hit for a potential chemotherapy when tested combination with radiation.
I’m also curious about dosage, if you are able to do trials with mice, how do you think doses will be different? Do you foresee any challenges with determining a dose for a different organism?
Hello Erin,
While Drosophila has 75% of genes that attribute to disease in humans, mice also obtain 85% identical protein coding genes. Therefore if I was able to do the trial with mice, I would begin by testing Turkey Tail Mushroom extract at 1 mg/mL as I did with Drosophila Melanogaster. I absolutely expect doses to be different. Concentration of important metabolites differ from organism to organism and that will definitely effect how one organism is affected or metabolize a compounds. I see that determining doses at which this extract is effective in mice and down the line in humans will be complicated and difficult.
I’m curious, how did you make the decision to test multiple concentrations? Is the only benefit creating a potential dose response curve?
Hello Cooper,
We were influenced by our instructor Dr. Harvey to test compound through a series of dilution. We chose 1:2 dilution series. The benefits of testing various doses is incredibly beneficial to creating a dose response curve in determining efficacy, but it is also significant in identifying the different outcomes that may occur at varying doses. Different doses can do different things in our bodies, concentration of a substance or molecules can have varying effects in our bodies and knowing those effects can be incredibly helpful.
What background information led you to formulate your hypothesis?
Hi Alden,
Turkey Tail Mushroom have been used for medicinal purposes in Asian countries, such as China, for thousands of year as they boost the immune system that is vital in fighting against diseases such as cancer. The extract from Turkey Tail mushroom contains PSK, an active component, that is currently commonly used as combinatorial treatment for cancer therapy in Japan. There were research articles also which stated success found in using PSK as combinatorial cancer treatment. An example, in Gastric cancer patients, the survival rate of treatment with PSK was 86.8% compared to the control group without PSK was 60%. Based on these research, we were able to hypothesize that the percent survival of Drosophila upon exposure to Turkey tail mushroom extract containing PSK will be lower when compared to the exposure to the negative control DMSO.