Table 2.

Main studies examining antineoplastic mechanisms of Hericium erinaceus against colorectal cancer

Ref.	H. erinaceus fraction employed	Colonic cancer model	Identified mechanism
Kim et al[119], 2011	Hot water/ microwave ethanol extraction extracts	CT-26 cancer cells graft in mice	NK cells activity ↑; macrophages activity ↑; angiogenesis ↓
Li et al[77], 2014	Polysaccharides	HT-29 cancer cells graft in mice	-
Lee et al[65], 2017	Erinacine A	Cancer cells (HCT-116, DLD1)	PI3K/AKT/mTOR/; p70S6K pathway; ROS ↑
Sharif et al[120], 2018	Ethanolic and methanolic extracts	Cancer cells (HT-29)	α-glucosidase activity ↑; anti-tyrosinase activity ↓
Liu et al[116], 2020	Polysaccharides	Cancer cells (HCT-116)	CDK1 ↓; CDK2 ↓; Cyclin A2 ↓; MCM5 ↓
Hou et al[118], 2020	Polysaccharides	Cancer cells (HCT-116, DLD1)	Clived caspases 3,9 ↑; ROS ↑; Bax ↑; Bcl-2 ↓

NK: Natural killer; PI3K: Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase; AKT: Protein kinase B; mTOR: Mechanistic target of rapamycin; p70S6K: Ribosomal protein S6 kinase beta-1; CDK: Cyclin-dependent kinase; MCM5: Mini-chromosomal maintenance protein 5; ROS: Reactive oxygen species; Bax: Bcl-2-like protein 4; Bcl-2: B-cell lymphoma 2.