Ricerc@Sapienza

Mushrooms represent a formidable source of bioactive compounds. Some of these may be considered as biological response modifiers; these include compounds with a specific biological function: antibiotics (e.g. plectasin), immune system stimulator (e,g, lentinan), antitumor agents (e.g. krestin, PSK) and hypolipidemic agents (e.g. lovastatin) inter alia. In this study, we focused on the Chinese medicinal mushroom "yun zhi", Trametes versicolor, traditionally used for (cit.) "replenish essence and qi (vital energy)".

Immunomodulators are agents able to affect the immune system, by boosting the immune defences to improve the body reaction against infectious or exogenous injuries, or suppressing the abnormal immune response occurring in immune disorders. Moreover, immunoadjuvants can support immune system acting on nonimmune targets, thus improving the immune response. The modulation of inflammatory pathways and microbiome can also contribute to control the immune function. Some plant-based nutraceuticals have been studied as possible immunomodulating agents due to their multiple and pleiotropic effects.

Recently, glycerol has been exploited in a number of industrial applications, thanks to its high availability, its low cost and, overall, its peculiar properties which fit well with the green chemistry principles. In this work, the ability of glycerol to solubilize high molecular weight polymers and to allow the formation of glycerol-based semi-interpenetrating polymer networks, called "gly-semi-IPNs", has been investigated. Compared to water, glycerol deeply affects the structural properties of the biopolymers, especially with reference to their chain flexibility.