Anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic properties of lipid bioactives from the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana.

In the present work the entomopathogenic fungus B. bassiana lipids were studied against the potent pro-inflammatory and thrombotic mediators implicated in several disorders, platelet-activating factor (PAF) and thrombin. Bioactivities of lipid extracts from B. bassiana cells and culture supernatants and of their lipid fractions separated by a one-step HPLC-analysis ere assessed against the PAF/Thrombin-induced aggregation of washed rabbit platelets. Lipid extracts from both cell-biomass and supernatant inhibited strongly PAF/Thrombin-activities and platelet-aggregation, exhibiting higher specificity against PAF. Similarly, HPLC-derived lipid-fractions of phenolics/glycolipids, Sphingomyelins and Phosphatidylcholines (PC) showed strong anti-PAF potency. PC PAF-like molecules exhibited the strongest antagonistic anti-PAF effects, while in higher amounts they agonistically inhibited PAF-activities. Some bioactive lipids with strong anti-PAF effects are exo-cellularly secreted in the culture media during fungal growth, while others are not. The presence of such lipid bioactives in B. bassiana with strong anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic properties, provide new perspectives and putative future applications for this entomopathogenic fungus.