Carbohydrate Polymers 141 (2016) 220–228 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Carbohydrate Polymers j ourna l ho me pa g e: www.elsevier.com/locate/carbpol Structure and antinociceptive effects of -d-glucans from Cookeina tricholoma Roberta B. Moreno a , Andrea C. Ruthes a,b , Cristiane H. Baggio c , Francisco Vilaplana b , Dirce L. Komura d , Marcello Iacomini a,∗ a Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba CEP 81531-980, PR, Brazil b Division of Glycoscience, AlbaNova University Centre, Royal Institute of Technology, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden c Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19031, CEP 81531-980 Curitiba, PR, Brazil d Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Av. André Araújo, 2936, CEP 69060-001 Manaus, AM, Brazil a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 3 August 2015 Received in revised form 15 December 2015 Accepted 1 January 2016 Available online 7 January 2016 Keywords: Ascomycete Cookeina tricholoma (1 →3),(1 →6)--d-Glucans Antinociceptive effect a b s t r a c t Structurally different water-insoluble (1 → 3),(1 → 6) -d-glucans were isolated from aqueous and alkaline extracts of the mushroom-forming ascomycete Cookeina tricholoma, a wild edible mush- room found in Brazilian Amazon forest. The structures showed different substitution patterns, which may influence their extractability and consequently their conformation in solution, and different M W (4.3 × 10 5 Da, 3.7 × 10 5 Da and 8.2 × 10 5 Da, for ICW-Ct, IHW-Ct and IK2-Ct, respectively). The main-chains are composed of (1 → 3)-linked -d-Glcp units O-6 substituted by side chains with different lengths of (1 → 6)-linked -d-Glcp units (ICW-Ct and IHW-Ct) or by a combination of (1 → 6)-linked -d-Glcp units and single units of -d-Glcp (IK2-Ct). -d-glucans with similar M W and showing only (1 → 6)-linked -d-Glcp units as side chains (ICW- Ct and IHW-Ct) showed significant inhibition of neurogenic pain, 69 ± 11 and 57 ± 11% at the dose of 10 mg kg -1 , respectively, in the model of nociception induced by intraplantar injection of formalin. © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction The worldwide diversity of fungi has been estimated at 1.5 mil- lion species, but currently only less than 10% of the species have been described (Hawksworth, 2001; Webster and Weber, 2007; Blackwell, 2011). Great part of this diversity can be found in the Amazon forest, where the fungi are import components due to their fundamental role in nutrient cycling dynamics and primary produc- tion (Lodge, Hawksworth, & Ritchie, 1996). With the exception of Yanomami tribe, which has a relative good knowledge about fungi edibility, Brazilian Indians are not considered mycophilous (Prance, 1984; Cardoso, Queiroz, Bandeira, & Góes-Neto, 2010) and many species remain unexplored in this region. Cookeina sp. known as “Aguabana” in Guyana, is eaten by Patamona people and have been described to have a mild taste and a pleasantly crunchy texture by researchers (Henkel, Aime, Chin, & Andrew, 2004). Cookeina tricholoma is consumed in Western Africa (van Dijk, Awana-Onguene, & Kuyper, 2003) and C. sulcipes, in Mexico, and besides to its nutritional value, it is used as an ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 41 3361 1655; fax: +55 41 3266 2042. E-mail address: iacomini@ufpr.br (M. Iacomini). ornament due to its pink color and glass wine shape (Sanchez, Martin, & Sanchez, 1995; Ruán-Soto, Garibay-Orijel, & Cifuentes, 2006). These species also occur in Brazil, but have no reports about their consumption or chemical composition. In Brazil, the consumption of edible mushroom is around 160 g per capita, while in traditional countries, as China and Japan, this number reaches 4 kg per capita. Despite the consumption and pro- duction of edible mushrooms has increased over the last 50 years, the production of 15 thousand tons/year it is not enough to support the demand and the country imports almost the same amount as it produces (Embrapa, 2014). Extensive studies have revealed that different mushroom species are of value in the prevention and treatment of a number of human diseases (Chang, 2008; Wasser, 2002; Smiderle, Ruthes, & Iacomini, 2014). Among the different bioactive substances that have been identified, the most studied polysaccharides are d-glucans. They have been vastly isolated from Basidiomycetes (Ruthes, Smiderle, & Iacomini, 2015; Ren, Perera, & Hemar, 2012; Smiderle et al., 2006) and present plenty of biological activities, such as, hypoglycemic activity (Chen & Raymond, 2008), antinoci- ceptive (Ruthes et al., 2013a; Silveira et al., 2014; Smiderle et al., 2008), anti-inflammatory (Dore et al., 2007; Roy et al., 2009; Ruthes et al., 2013a,b; Smiderle et al., 2008), immunomodulatory (Lull, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.01.001 0144-8617/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.