Endophytic fungi with antitumor activities: Their occurrence and anticancer compounds

Abstract

Plant endophytic fungi have been recognized as an important and novel resource of natural bioactive products, especially in anticancer application. This review mainly deals with the research progress on the production of anticancer compounds by endophytic fungi between 1990 and 2013. Anticancer activity is generally associated with the cytotoxicity of the compounds present in the endophytic fungi. All strains of endophytes producing antitumor chemicals were classified taxonomically and the genera of Pestalotiopsis and Aspergillus as well as the taxol producing endophytes were focused on. Classification of endophytic fungi producing antitumor compounds has received more attention from mycologists, and it can also lead to the discovery of novel compounds with antitumor activity due to phylogenetic relationships. In this review, the structures of the anticancer compounds isolated from the newly reported endophytes between 2010 and 2013 are discussed including strategies for the efficient production of the desired compounds. The purpose of this review is to provide new directions in endophytic fungi research including integrated information relating to its anticancer compounds.

• Anticancer activity
• Aspergillus
• bioactive metabolite
• endophyte
• medicinal plant
• Pestalotiopsis

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests. This article was supported by TCM Modernization Foundation of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai (No. 14401902900 and No. 13401900102), the Young Scientist Special Project of the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2014AA020508) and “Chen Guang” project supported by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education Development Foundation (13CG40).