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Study finds heart perk in Viagra
24 January 2005
Researchers say drug blocks, reverses condition in mice
By Randolph E. Schmid
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Viagra might aid in
the treatment of enlarged hearts that can result from high blood
pressure, tests on animals indicate.
Plans are under way for a trial to determine whether similar results
occur in humans given the drug widely used to treat erectile
dysfunction.
The drug, known generically as sildenafil citrate, blocked and reversed some heart enlargement in mice with blood pressure stress, said researchers led by Dr. David Kass of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"A larger-than-normal heart is a serious medical condition known as hypertrophy and is a common feature of heart failure that can be fatal," Kass said. He said findings "suggest possible therapies in the future, including sildenafil, which has the added benefit of already being studied as safe and effective for another medical condition."
The report, in Sunday's online edition of Nature Medicine, came as no surprise to Dr. William White, head of the hypertension section of the University of Connecticut Health Center.
White, who was not part of the research team, said sildenafil was discovered by researchers studying blood pressure and heart disease.
The drug is effective only for a short time, he said. It would need to be longer-acting to be useful in treating heart enlargement, White said.
Dr. Richard Devereux of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York agreed that sildenafil is too short-acting to be a practical medication for heart enlargement in humans.
"But this still constitutes a clue that I personally find very exciting and potentially important," he said.
The researchers said the makers of Viagra had no involvement in the design or support of the research.
Their work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Peter Belfer Laboratory for Heart Failure Research, Uehara Memorial Foundation, American Heart Association, American Physiological Society and Bernard Family Foundation.
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