Cholesterol

"It has the potential of becoming a new drug for the treatment of human genetic disease." The findings described in this article significantly raise the possibility that new therapies could arise where defective DNA is deactivated more completely and more thoroughly than ever before.

For instance, Zorro-LNA could be used in combination with "RNA interference" (RNAi).

Like Zorro-LNA, RNAi has the ability to deactivate genes, but does so by degrading the gene’s RNA.

In addition, Zorro-LNA could be used to deactivate certain genes in stem cells, which could eventually lead to the development of new cells, tissues, or organs.

The discovery of RNAi was recognized by a Nobel Prize award in 2006 to two American scientists.

"This is a major development in the treatment not only of genetic diseases, but also of acquired diseases when microbes or toxins cause genes to go awry" said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal.

"One might say these researchers have found a gene-hunter’s Holy Grail for which scientists have been hunting for many years.

Zorro-LNA should give us a new, safe way of blocking the effects of errors in our genetic repertoire."-Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology...

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The participants then switched diets and continued eating only food provided by the researchers for another five weeks.

The Healthy Heart diet with macadamia nuts did reduce total "We observed a reduction in LDL similar to that seen with other tree nuts like walnuts and almonds," says Griel.

Individual calorie levels were used for each participant so that they did not gain or lose weight during the study.

Both diets were matched for total fat, containing 33 percent calories from total fat.

The Heart Healthy diet with macadamia nuts had 7 percent saturated fat, 18 percent monounsaturated fat and 5 percent polyunsaturated fat.

The standard American diet had 13 percent saturated fat, 11 percent monounsaturated fat and 5 percent polyunsaturated fat.

The macadamia nut diet included macadamia nuts as a snack, mixed into meals, as a salad topping and in cookies and muffins.

"The total fat was the same in both diets," says Griel.

"We substituted the macadamia nuts for other sources of fat and protein in the diet.

For example, we could switch skim milk for 2 percent milk and add some macadamia nuts." Macadamia nuts are nati...