Meta-analysis of the Immunomodulatory Effect of Ganoderma Lucidum Spores Using an Automatic Pipeline

• Published in: Smart Health Vol. 10983; pp. 332 - 341
• Main Authors: Liu, Rui, Zhang, Yumeng, Chen, Ziwen, Wang, Liqiang, He, Shuaibing, Hua, Guifeng, Liu, Chang
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2018; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Immunomodulatory effect; Meta-analysis; spore
• ISBN: 3030036480; 9783030036485
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-03649-2_33

Although many studies have been conducted on the chemistry and pharmacological activities of Ganoderma lucidum spores (GLS), there is a lack of systematic review on the health promoting functions especially immunomodulatory effects of GLS. In the current study, we constructed a data model and utilized R modules and PERL language to implement a pipeline that is capable of carrying out multiple meta-analyses automatically. Using GLS as the study subject, we carried out meta-analyses on 53 outcome measures using the automatic meta-analysis pipeline. Among them, 19 outcome measures were found to be significantly affected after GLS treatment (with p value < 0.05). 8 of them have I^2 less than 50%, indicating low level of study heterogeneity. Through the analysis of GLS, the automatic meta-analysis pipeline has been shown to be suitable for high-throughput meta-analysis and visualization. Also, the information derived from this study could assist policy-makers and functional food consumers to determine whether GLS could be a recommended choice for immunomodulatory effect.