Lanosterol synthase disease prevention and treatment (see Disease Relevance, below). Interest has grown in lanosterol synthase inhibitors as drugs to lower blood cholesterol and treat atherosclerosis. The widely popular statin drugs currently used to lower LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol function by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase activity. Because this enzyme catalyzes the formation of precursors far upstream of (S)-2,3-epoxysqualene and cholesterol, statins may negatively influence amounts of intermediates required for other biosynthetic pathways (e.g. synthesis of isoprenoids, coenzyme Q). Thus, lanosterol synthase, which is more closely tied to cholesterol biosynthesis than HMG-CoA reductase, is an attractive drug target. Lanosterol synthase inhibitors are thought to
What Are The Theosophists? What Are The Theosophists? "What Are The Theosophists?" is an editorial published in October 1879 in the theosophical magazine "The Theosophist." It was compiled by Helena Blavatsky and it was included the 2nd volume of the "Blavatsky Collected Writings." Arnold Kalnitsky wrote in his thesis that in this article "we find a rather expansive statement of... [Blavatsky's] thoughts at that moment about the status of the movement, the Theosophical Society, its objectives, and the issues it was confronting." He wrote that the article begins with a question whether the Theosophists "are they what they claim to be": researchers of the