The genes are injected inside a herpes virus that has been modified...

The big buzzwords in the world of erectile dysfunction treatment at present are ‘gene therapy’. Ukmedix News has come across many research projects in different parts of the world that are looking at whether gene therapy can be used to help men who have severe erectile dysfunction, and especially men for whom the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra have no effect.

The latest research project that involved the use of rats that had had bladder or prostrate operations specifically used gene therapy to bolster the growth of crucial nerves that that had been damaged during the surgery.

The scientists were extremely pleased with the results on rats and are now busy setting up trials to use the treatment with men suffering from severe erectile dysfunction.  The researchers that hail from the University of Pittsburgh are very excited by their find and said that it was important that the genes used must ’code’ with the nerve growth.

The process of adding genes to the nerve cells is not by any means simple and involves a complicated process by where the genes are injected inside a herpes virus that has been modified so that it cannot replicate. The scientists also added ‘nerve growth promoting genes’ and then modified it further so that the virus can only act on nerve cells and not any others.

If this sort of treatment is effective it will be perfect for men who have had prostrate cancer surgery or surgery in the bladder region and who very often suffer from nerve damage that in turn causes erectile dysfunction. Sometimes in men this nerve damage can cause permanent erectile dysfunction that the best erectile dysfunction drugs cannot cure. This new gene therapy could also be put to different uses to help people who have suffered from different types of nerve damage.