Scientists Look to Mushrooms for Smallpox Treatment

Scientists at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina are testing an extract from mushrooms for possible use in smallpox treatments, NBC News reported this week (see GSN, June 23).

“Our main goal is to see if a crude extract of the mushroom can affect a virus,” said Nick Oberlies, a researcher who specializes in the study of natural products. “Mushrooms synthesize some sort of compound that allow them to fight off other things invading for its space. We're trying to unlock those and use them for some sort of human use.”

Researchers from the institute and two other laboratories recently received a $5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to use mushrooms to develop countermeasures for people exposed to smallpox.

Oberlies said 16,000 mushroom samples from around the country would be studied over the next five years (Helen Chickering, NBC News/KSDK, June 22).

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