A team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has identified a compound in white button mushrooms that could potentially benefit gut health in mammals by activating a protective biological response.
“Our research showed that a biochemometric approach—modeling chemistry and biology data together—can lead to the discovery of new components of chemical mixture in foods that might be therapeutic for animal and human health,” said Joshua Kellogg, assistant professor of metabolomics in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Functional Foods.
Using cell-based assays and a molecular networking approach—a method that organizes molecules according to their structural similarity—the researchers found that the new compound they identified in white button mushrooms activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, or AHR, which is found in mammals including mice, pigs and humans.
Prior studies have demonstrated that when mice ingest mushrooms, the AHR either becomes antagonized or inhibited. The compound Kellogg’s team