The illudins are a family of sesquiterpene

Sesquiterpene

Sesquiterpenes are a class of terpenes that consist of three isoprene units and have the molecular formula C15H24. Like monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes may be acyclic or contain rings, including many unique combinations...

s with antitumor antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

 properties produced by some mushroom

Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...

s. In their isolated form, illudins show selective toxicity for myelocytic leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

 and other carcinoma

Carcinoma

Carcinoma is the medical term for the most common type of cancer occurring in humans. Put simply, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that generally arises from cells originating in the endodermal or ectodermal germ layer during...

 cells.

Illudin is highly toxic, with little apparent therapeutic value in its natural form. It is thought responsible for the ill effects caused by various Omphalotus

Omphalotus

Omphalotus is a genus of Basidiomycete mushroom formally described by Victor Fayod in 1889. Members have the traditional cap and stem toadstool form. The best known and type species is the jack-o'-lantern mushroom . Species of Omphalotus, which are poisonous, have been mistaken for chanterelles...

species like O. olearius (jack o'lantern mushroom) and O. nidiformis

Omphalotus nidiformis

Omphalotus nidiformis, or ghost fungus, is a gilled basidiomycete mushroom found in southern Australia most notable for its bioluminescent properties. Generally found growing on dead or dying trees, it is saprotroph and parasite....

(Australian ghost fungus).

Inside cells, illudin is chemically changed to react with DNA, thus creating an unknown type of DNA damage that blocks the transcription

Transcription (genetics)

Transcription is the process of creating a complementary RNA copy of a sequence of DNA. Both RNA and DNA are nucleic acids, which use base pairs of nucleotides as a complementary language that can be converted back and forth from DNA to RNA by the action of the correct enzymes...

 process. This block can only be relieved by the DNA repair system nucleotide excision repair

Nucleotide excision repair

Nucleotide excision repair is a DNA repair mechanism. DNA constantly requires repair due to damage that can occur to bases from a vast variety of sources including chemicals, radiation and other mutagens...

. Damages in non-transcribed DNA areas are ignored. This property was exploited by the company MGI Pharma to develop an illudin-derivative called Irofulven

Irofulven

Irofulven or 6-hydroxymethylacylfulvene is an antitumor agent. It belongs to the family of drugs called alkylating agents.It inhibits the replication of DNA....

for use as an anti-cancer medicine. Its application is still in the experimental phase.