New Viagra Discovery
Written by Jamie Stowe| Wednesday, 27 August 2008| There are 0 comments
used by people who are in danger of suffering from heart attacks and strokes
Queen's University in Canada has come up with some exciting new research which shows that the drug Viagra may have yet again another medical use other then for treating erectile dysfunction. The research team at Queen's University say that they have managed to regulate a single enzyme which may allow them to develop new drugs to ward off heart attacks and strokes.
The team led by Professor Donald Maurice who leads the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department explained that their research was extremely complicated and involved the mechanisms of platelets which are tiny blood cells that are required for the blood to clot normally. PDE-5 inhibitors like Viagra could be used to "selectively inhibit platelet function" according to Lindsay Wilson who also worked on the study.
The complete results of the study and the exact mechanisms which were discovered by this research team can be read in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study which was paid for by the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation as well as the Canadian Institute of Health Research confirms what many scientists have reckoned for some time which is that Viagra (and also possibly Cialis and Levitra) will eventually used by people who are in danger of suffering from heart attacks and strokes.
Viagra is not recommended for people at present who have heart problems because not enough is known about the effects on the heart but is likely but following further research and possible scientific amendments to the group of PDE-5 inhibitors that they will become commonplace medications for heart patients.
Viagra has been used already to help adults who suffer from pulmonary arterial hypertension and has also been credited with saving very young babies who are born with this condition. Pfizer who make Viagra originally tested the drug to see if it could be used for treatment of angina but the results were unsuccessful. It was only when the side effects of the drug were studied that Pfizer stumbled onto one of the most successful medications ever which some people credit with changing the world as we know it.
