Using fungi to search for medical drugs.

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An enormous library of products derived from more than ten thousand fungi could help us find new drugs. Researchers from the group of Jeroen den Hertog at the Hubrecht Institute, in collaboration with researchers from the Westerdijk Institute and Utrecht University, have set up this library and screened it for biologically active compounds. They tested the biological activity of these fungal products first using zebrafish embryos. The researchers chose to use zebrafish embryos, because it allows the analysis of effects on many cell types at the same time, in a working body, and because zebrafish are physiologically very similar to humans. They have already found various known compounds, among which the cholesterol lowering drug lovastatin. The library of fungal products offers ample opportunity to search for new drugs. The results of this research were published on the 26th of November in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

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