How does lion’s mane develop your brain?

Lion’s mane, hericium erinaceus, is a delicious mushroom of the Hericiaceae family of mushrooms. These are mushrooms with long spines that grow on a bulbous body, because of this they are also known as bearded tooth fungus. There are many health benefits to these mushrooms, namely, prevention of Alzheimerrs, Parkinsons and similar neurological disorders, amelioration of neurotoxicity, anti-tumor, and antidepressant features.

The main influence of these mushrooms on the brain comes from the constituents of the fruiting body of the mushrooms. There are two main constituents Hericenones and erinacines. These compounds may also be found in the mycelium of lions mane. These two compounds have been found to have a profound effect on neuroactivity by protecting against inflammatory responses in the brain.[1] This inflammation has been linked to issues like parkinsons and alzheimers in the brain. In another study they found that the derivatives of lions mane were able to inhibit brain damage done to mice who had been stroke induced.[4] Particularly they were able to determine that Heronices and eronices A were able to improve the neuroprotective effects against cell death in the brains of stroke mice. The mechanism for this was still complicated but a specific pathway is discussed in article [4]. They were able to determine that the mushroom derived diterpenoids worked through inactivation of two pathways, specifically the ones that react to external stimuli with biological effects, iNOS/RNS and p38/MAPK.

Furthermore, lion’s mane has been linked to prevent issues with colon cancer. An article in 2019 showed that constituents of lion’s mane particularly erinacine-A has been shown to suppress the expression of antiapoptic molecules bcl-2 and bcl-XL. [3] Bcl-2 is a gene that regulates the death of a cell, this means that the death of the cells beginning to create tumors through cell death are mitigated with the use of erinacine-A as shown in article [3].

In regards to being a solution to depression, researchers found that lion's mane was able to induce anti-inflammatory responses in the brain.[5] These inflammatory responses could lead to depression which suggests that the lion’s mane could play a part in reducing stress. The researchers were particularly able to discover a pathway in the brain that helped researchers determine that they were dealing with depression with their treatment. 

Sources:

[1] Lee SL, Hsu JY, Chen TC, Huang CC, Wu TY, Chin TY. Erinacine A Prevents Lipopolysaccharide-Mediated Glial Cell Activation to Protect Dopaminergic Neurons against Inflammatory Factor-Induced Cell Death In Vitro and In Vivo. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jan 12;23(2):810. doi: 10.3390/ijms23020810. PMID: 35054997; PMCID: PMC8776144.

[2] Li IC, Chang HH, Lin CH, Chen WP, Lu TH, Lee LY, Chen YW, Chen YP, Chen CC, Lin DP. Prevention of Early Alzheimer's Disease by Erinacine A-Enriched Hericium erinaceus Mycelia Pilot Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study. Front Aging Neurosci. 2020 Jun 3;12:155. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.00155. PMID: 32581767; PMCID: PMC7283924.

[3] Lee KC, Lee KF, Tung SY, Huang WS, Lee LY, Chen WP, Chen CC, Teng CC, Shen CH, Hsieh MC, Kuo HC. Induction Apoptosis of Erinacine A in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells Involving the Expression of TNFR, Fas, and Fas Ligand via the JNK/p300/p50 Signaling Pathway With Histone Acetylation. Front Pharmacol. 2019 Oct 15;10:1174. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2019.01174. PMID: 31680958; PMCID: PMC6804634.

[4] Lee KF, Chen JH, Teng CC, Shen CH, Hsieh MC, Lu CC, Lee KC, Lee LY, Chen WP, Chen CC, Huang WS, Kuo HC. Protective effects of Hericium erinaceus mycelium and its isolated erinacine A against ischemia-injury-induced neuronal cell death via the inhibition of iNOS/p38 MAPK and nitrotyrosine. Int J Mol Sci. 2014 Aug 27;15(9):15073-89. doi: 10.3390/ijms150915073. PMID: 25167134; PMCID: PMC4200813.

[5] Chiu CH, Chyau CC, Chen CC, Lee LY, Chen WP, Liu JL, Lin WH, Mong MC. Erinacine A-Enriched Hericium erinaceus Mycelium Produces Antidepressant-Like Effects through Modulating BDNF/PI3K/Akt/GSK-3β Signaling in Mice. Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Jan 24;19(2):341. doi: 10.3390/ijms19020341. PMID: 29364170; PMCID: PMC5855563.

-Written by Llarj J. Onsen