Although hericenones C and D from the fruiting body of H. erinaceus have shown to induce neuroprotective properties (Kawagishi et al., 1991) in rats by stimulating NGF synthesis via activation of the c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway, they failed to promote NGF gene expression in 1321N1 human astrocytoma cells (Mori et al., 2008). Here, MAPK8 is linked to astrocytoma (excluding glioblastoma).