Making Profitable Sense out of Fighting High Cholesterol

We have come to better understand, for example, how the instructions written on DNA strands control cellular processes. Since a large percentage of the diseases that affect us have a genetic component, this understanding is opening up stunning (and profitable) opportunities for therapies.

While DNA contains the master code that controls cellular processes, these instructions must be relayed to other parts of the cell in order to work. In the cell's nucleus, these genetic instructions are copied onto messenger molecules.

These molecules, which are known as messenger RNA (mRNA), carry the message to organelles, know as ribosomes. Ribosomes are protein-manufacturing plants. Ribosomes receive the encoded message carried by the nRNA and go on to manufacture the specified protein.

When it comes to genetic disorders, bad genes can either lead to bad proteins or lack of good ones. This is the root cause of many diseases, including cancer, which is a result of mutated genes causing previously healthy cells to malfunction. In other situations, it is desirable to modify protein synthesis in order to mitigate the damage of systemic disorders like diabetes.

Researchers have discovered that messenger RNA molecules can be neutralized while en route to their destinations. If an RNA molecule that is complementary and opposite to an mRNA molecule is introduced into a cell, it binds it. When this happens, the messenger RNA can no longer tell the ribosomes to manufacture a particular protein. The messenger is, in other words, silenced. This molecular polarity is known as "sense" in the case of mRNA. In the case of the introduced mRNA-neutralizing molecule, it is called antisense.

Antisense technology is already in widespread agricultural use. For instance, you have probably enjoyed tomatoes that use Flavr Savr technology for years, perhaps without knowing it. Flavr Savr tomatoes are treated with an antisense RNA that blocks a gene that causes the tomato to ripen. In slowing the ripening process, fresh tomatoes keep for a longer period of time. This means that they can make it from the field to the produce section in fresher condition.

Clearly, potential applications for antisense technology extended beyond foods to human biology.

For example, a leading company in the drive to create mRNA-silencing antisense has developed an advanced antisense drug discovery process. Through this discovery platform, it is able to discover and design antisense drugs that are highly specific to particular genes. It has also unveiled the therapeutic potential for a whole new class of drugs.

In the cardiovascular area, this company has developed an antisense drug to reduce "bad" cholesterol called mipomersen. Mipomersen reduces LDL cholesterol by blocking the formation of fats that cause plaque buildup in arteries. Since currently available statin drugs do not lower LDL enough in some patients with genetic hypercholesterolemia, mipomersen brings the potential to lower cholesterol levels in line with recommended maximum levels.

Mipomersen is currently in Phse III clinical trials. It is being tested in two classes of patients, those with heterozygous familiar hypercholesterolemia, and those with the homozygous version. The heterozygous population has a single bad gene, while the homozygous has two.

If approved, mipomersen will be used in only more severe, genetic, high-cholesterol cases but the potential market is clearly large as the sales for the leading drug to lower cholesterol exceeded $12 billion in 2008.

In a recent post on this blog, the anti-aging supplement Protandim was introduced. It was highlighted that Protandim generated benefits associated with the Nrf2 pathway and these results were published in the journal of the American Heart Association, the premier journal of cardiology. It was the first time that a science-based journal has published an article about a branded supplement. One of the associated benefits, being presented in the studies, relates to the positive impact of therapies associated with the Nrf2 pathway, the cardiovascular area, and its potential to lower cholesterol levels.

Ninety percent of cardiology is a crisis response. How do we prevent patients from sitting in a cath lab at 2am? If we are going to reduce the cost of healthcare, we have got to get people to the point where we can prevent things from happening.

When scientists and members of the medical profession study living longer, they know oxidative stress is a major factor as to our longevity. Oxidative stress is an excess of free radicals. The Nrf2 pathway is the master regulator of the aging process.

As highlighted by studies published by the American Heart Association, Protandim contains an Nrf2 activator that provides a powerful antioxidant therapy with longevity and lower cholesterol benefits.

As mentioned in a previous posts on this blog, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent at CNN, has reported that "Practical Immortality may now be within our grasp."

So now the question becomes, "how do we slow the rate of aging and avoid the frailty that would make longevity less desirable?"

With antioxidant supplements, we can slow our rate of aging; with a nutrition and fitness routine, we can avoid frailty and improve our health; and with an industry leading home business opportunity, we can make great money and generate financial wealth.

For a brief discussion about Living Longer and Making Money from Home, please use my details on the Contact Me page of this site. Happy Reading and Here's to Your Success!

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