You mentioned that you’d like to see survival rates that are higher than colchicine if you increased the dose of PSK. It seems that 0% survival would be a good outcome as long as it doesn’t cause toxicities. Can you suggest an experiment that could be done to look at whether PSK would be safe even if it caused 0% survival of third instar Drosophila larvae? -Pam
One of the best ways we could test if PSK is safe would be to use a different animal model such as a mouse. Using a mouse would make it easier to see the side effects of PSK and if the treatment is causing death due to toxicity. We can test different doses to find the lethal dose (LD50) and effective dose (ED50) so we can then identify a therapeutic index.
Do you think the results in the mice that you mentioned in your future directions section would have similar outcome that it would in humans? Also what are the traits in mice that are similar to humans in terms of the genes? Is there anything else besides the protein coding genes?
When it comes to mice and humans there are differences between the two and the effects of a drug will not always be the same in a mouse as a human. But I would expect a tumor in a mouse to behave similarly to tumors in humans as cancerous cells all exhibit similar characteristics. So while the results might not be completely the same, such as side effects or effective dose between humans and mice, PSK’s efficiency at killing cancer cells in both organisms would likely be similar.
Turkey Tail extract has antioxidants and shown to have immune boosting properties and as such has been used as a supplement to help boost the immune system and help protect against getting sick as well as quicker recovery from illness.
In terms of flies, a dosage of around 1mg/mL to 0.5mg/mL would be the most effective as it gives the desired result of low survival rate and a statistical hit. When it comes to a human or different model organism such as a mouse the exact dosage I can’t predict as things such as side effects or toxicity are unknown as they can’t be recorded with flies. In order to determine these doses testing would need to be done to find the therapeutic index for a mouse or human.
You did a great job! How did you come across the Turkey Tail Mushroom with the polysaccharide-k as your chosen drug for this research. It seems so different from some of the other chosen drugs and I really enjoyed this one!
Thank you! My group came across this because a previous group of students had done testing on Turkey Tail! When we were initially looking through different potential drugs we could test this one really caught our eye because it was so different and interesting. Another big factor we considered was that there have been several novel chemotherapies that were isolated from nature, which made something like a mushroom look promising!
How did you come across the turkey tail mushroom as your chosen drug for this research? It’s so different from the previous presentations I saw and this one was the most interesting to me! so cool!
You mentioned that you’d like to see survival rates that are higher than colchicine if you increased the dose of PSK. It seems that 0% survival would be a good outcome as long as it doesn’t cause toxicities. Can you suggest an experiment that could be done to look at whether PSK would be safe even if it caused 0% survival of third instar Drosophila larvae? -Pam
One of the best ways we could test if PSK is safe would be to use a different animal model such as a mouse. Using a mouse would make it easier to see the side effects of PSK and if the treatment is causing death due to toxicity. We can test different doses to find the lethal dose (LD50) and effective dose (ED50) so we can then identify a therapeutic index.
Do you think the results in the mice that you mentioned in your future directions section would have similar outcome that it would in humans? Also what are the traits in mice that are similar to humans in terms of the genes? Is there anything else besides the protein coding genes?
When it comes to mice and humans there are differences between the two and the effects of a drug will not always be the same in a mouse as a human. But I would expect a tumor in a mouse to behave similarly to tumors in humans as cancerous cells all exhibit similar characteristics. So while the results might not be completely the same, such as side effects or effective dose between humans and mice, PSK’s efficiency at killing cancer cells in both organisms would likely be similar.
Are there other types of treatment that this drug can be used for outside of cancer? That we know of?
Turkey Tail extract has antioxidants and shown to have immune boosting properties and as such has been used as a supplement to help boost the immune system and help protect against getting sick as well as quicker recovery from illness.
Do you have any idea at what possible concentration turkey tail mushroom extract would be the most beneficial?
In terms of flies, a dosage of around 1mg/mL to 0.5mg/mL would be the most effective as it gives the desired result of low survival rate and a statistical hit. When it comes to a human or different model organism such as a mouse the exact dosage I can’t predict as things such as side effects or toxicity are unknown as they can’t be recorded with flies. In order to determine these doses testing would need to be done to find the therapeutic index for a mouse or human.
You did a great job! How did you come across the Turkey Tail Mushroom with the polysaccharide-k as your chosen drug for this research. It seems so different from some of the other chosen drugs and I really enjoyed this one!
Thank you! My group came across this because a previous group of students had done testing on Turkey Tail! When we were initially looking through different potential drugs we could test this one really caught our eye because it was so different and interesting. Another big factor we considered was that there have been several novel chemotherapies that were isolated from nature, which made something like a mushroom look promising!
How did you come across the turkey tail mushroom as your chosen drug for this research? It’s so different from the previous presentations I saw and this one was the most interesting to me! so cool!
sorry I left two comments, the first one didn’t load so I thought it didn’t post