# Mushroom Nutrition as Preventative Healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa
## 4 African Mushrooms
### Bioactive Compounds of Mushrooms
Several studies showed that _Pleurotus ergygini_ and _Ganoderma_ _lucidum_ can produce laccases, which is a group of enzymes that can confer activity against HIV by inhibiting the reverse transcriptase [78; 79]. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is also present in some mushrooms, and its important physiological role is in the primary cellular antioxidant defense and its potential therapeutic use [80]. Proteolysis is an essential part of many physiological and metabolic processes in all biota, and basidiomycetes mushrooms are valuable sources of proteases used in defense mechanisms of living organisms and in biotechnological processes [81]. Multiple lectins produced by _Flammulina_ _veultipes_, _Pleurotus ostreatus_, and _Ganoderma_ _expense_ were shown to have potent inhibitory activity in vitro toward cancer cells through fungal ribotoxin-based immunotoxins, which are characterized by the ability to irreversibly block protein synthesis in neoplastic cells [82; 83]. In addition to the presence of enzymes, we have previously discussed [84] the significance of mushroom low-molecular-weight secondary metabolites (e.g., terpenes, steroids, anthraquinones, and benzoic acid), which can regulate processes such as cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, autophagy, angiogenesis, metastasis, and signal transduction cascades, which are associated with the development of cancer [66; 85; 86]. Nucleosides and nucleotides, components of nucleic acids, participate in the genesis and retention of energy for basal metabolism, the synthesis of macromolecules, and cell-cell signalling interplay with cell surface protein receptors; this transmits signals and changesinside the cell and hence the regulation of physiological processes in the human body via the vast array of purinergic and/or pyrimidine receptors [87]. Oxidative damage causes the production of over one hundred known modified nucleotides formed by multi-enzymatic reactions and by spontaneous chemical reactions. Mushroom constituents include these nucleic derivatives (nucleosides, nucleobases, and nucleotides), flavour determinants, and all are involved in several enzymatic reactions as target or as cofactors [88]. They are also used as fingerprint biomarkers to authenticate the mushroom species, and the pyrimidine ring structure, the backbone of the genetic material of DNA, has revealed therapeutic potentials and valuable medical applications, as shown below (Figure 7). From shiitake mushroom _Lentinus edodes_, the most studied species of mushroom and the second most consumed in the world, we can obtain lentinacin (eritadenine), a nucleoside compound well known to reduce total blood sugar and cholesterol [90]. DNA are composed of the same four nucleotides, and consumption is considered safe due to the likelihood of transfer and functional integration of DNA from ingested food, even modified, while gut microflora and/or human have developed sophisticated methods to suppress and annihilate exogenous DNA [91]. Nevertheless, there is a practical daily safe limit of nucleic acid intake (ca. 2-4 g) in human adults [92; 93].