Ben Kao

University of Auckland · Department of Nutrition

Introduction: Medicinal mushrooms have been used for the treatment of diseases and general promotion of health for many centuries. Recent pharmacological research into medicinal mushrooms has identified various therapeutic properties, with applications in modern medicine. Aim: To evaluate the anti-cancer activities of Fomitopsis pinicola (F. pinico...

Medicinal plants and plant products have been used by humans since the ancient times. Medicinal plants find wide usage in developed as well as in developing countries worldwide even till date, and yet there is not much crosstalk between the researchers of molecular medicine and/or diagnostics and practitioners and users of alternative medicines. In...

Prostate cancer is an important health burden to the healthcare system of any country. However, with the current prostate-specific antigen biomarker having low predictive value even for diagnostic purposes, the challenge is still open to tackle this chronic disease. There have been a number of studies which have indicated and encouraged a multi-dir...

Prostate cancer is an important health burden to the healthcare system of any country. However, with the current prostate-specific antigen biomarker having low predictive value even for diagnostic purposes, the challenge is still open to tackle this chronic disease. There have been a number of studies which have indicated and encouraged a multi-dir...

Although several Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have been carried out to analyse the role of genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the risk association of various cancers including prostate cancer (PCa), finding a specific link between any population and PCa is yet to be established. This research analyses the link between sev...

Prostate cancer is one of the most significant male health concerns worldwide, various researchers carrying out molecular diagnostics have indicated that genetic interactions with biological and behavioral factors play an important role in the overall risk and prognosis of this disease. Single nucleotide polymorphisms are increasingly becoming stro...

This on-going collection features all the articles published in Molecular Biosystems in 2017 that were highlighted by the reviewers of these articles as being interested or having particularly significant research.

Prostate cancer is one of the most significant male health concerns worldwide. Numerous researchers carrying out molecular diagnostics have indicated that genetic interactions with biological and behavioral factors play an important role in the overall risk and prognosis of this disease. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are increasingly becom...

Olive leaf extract (OLE) has been used for many years for its putative health benefits, but, to date, scientific evidence for the basis of these effects has been weak. Although recent literature has described a link between ailments such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer and a protective effect of polyphenols in the OLE, the mode of ac...

Age is often considered an important non-modifiable risk factor for a number of diseases, including prostate cancer. Some prominent risk factors of prostate cancer include familial history, ethnicity and age. In this review, various genetic and physiological characteristics affected due to advancing age will be analysed and correlated with their di...

Epigenetic modifications are well known to play vital roles in oncogenesis [1, 2]. A key regulator of epigenetic change is micro-ribonucleic acid (miRNA) [3]. miRNAs are not only post-transcriptional gene expression modifiers [2], but miRNAs also have been identified to play roles in both DNA methylation processes [2] and affect the expression of e...

The authors wish to make the following correction to this paper [1]. Reference 28 has been renumbered to 29, and the following affirmation in the original text: "Dezhong et al. have demonstrated that miR-150 was overexpressed in PCa cells at both the mRNA and protein levels" has been substituted by: "Waltering et al., 2011, reported that miR-150* a...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are well established epigenetic modifiers. There is a lot of work being done to identify the evolutionary transfer of miRNAs both at intra- and interspecific levels. In this hypothesis-driven review, we have suggested a possible reason as to why miR-150 can be a promising diagnostic biomarker for prostate cancer using theories of...

Ganoderma lucidum (lingzhi) has been used for the general promotion of health in Asia for many centuries. The common method of consumption is to boil lingzhi in water and then drink the liquid. In this study, we examined the potential anticancer activities of G. lucidum submerged in two commonly consumed forms of alcohol in East Asia: malt whiskey...

Background: Ganoderma lucidum is a type of fungus commonly consumed in Asia for the promotion of health and longevity. The observed biological activity of G. lucidum includes anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects which may be useful in the treatment and prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases. G. lucidum grows under conditions which ran...

Ganoderma lucidum, commonly referred to as Lingzhi, has been used in Asia for health promotion for centuries. The anti-cancer effects of G. lucidum have been demonstrated in both in vitro and in vivo studies. In addition, the observed anti-cancer activities of Ganoderma have prompted its usage by cancer patients alongside chemotherapy.The main two...

Ganoderma lucidum, commonly referred to as Lingzhi, has been used in Asia for health promotion for centuries. The anti-cancer effects of G. lucidum have been demonstrated in both in vitro and in vivo studies. In addition, the observed anti-cancer activities of Ganoderma have prompted its usage by cancer patients alongside chemotherapy. The main two...

The field of personalized medicine is currently broadening in scope in at least three crucial dimensions. First, while genetics/genomics individual variability is an important aspect of personalized medicine, it is clear that environmental, nutritional, lifestyle and social risk factors play a crucial role for suboptimal therapeutics or disease sus...