Cordyceps militaris has been known to produce an anticancer agent, cordycepin. Investigation on optimum culture condition for C. militaris had been performed. In the research program for discovering a novel function in the culture of C. militaris, the culture media was applied to a proliferation assays using various cell lines. The media showed significant anti-proliferative activities against al cell lines, especially to human leukemia cell line HL-60. The activity-guided purification of active ingredient was performed to obtain uracil. To the best of our knowledge, uracil has not been reported to possess anti-proliferative activity. However, the uracil obtained from the culture media was subjected to ICP-MS analysis to reveal that sodium, potassium and magnesium were found to co-exist with uracil, which might show anti-proliferative activity. Further study on the mechanism of the expression of the activity is now underway.

Case 1 was a 42-year-old woman who was admitted because of infective endocarditis. Pulmonary embolism occurred during medical treatment for infective endocarditis. Despite the acute infectious phase, surgical treatment was successfully performed. Case 2 was a 50-year-old man who was admitted because of infective endocarditis. Cardiac catheterization showed ventricular septal defect and atrial septal defect. Surgical treatment was performed successfuly. In both cases, and the postoperative courses were unventful.