We all know aboutthatuse , but did you know Viagra has an impressivelylong listof other things that it ’s either already used for or is being investigated for as a possible discussion option ? solidus , gist approach , long time - related store decline , jet stave , multiple sclerosis , diabetes and pain in the ass . But now , it seems that scientists may have found another , rather unexpected determination for it : Preventing the spread of malaria .
Malaria is because of a parasite calledPlasmodium falciparum , which completes part of its life cycles/second in its modality of transmission , mosquito , and the ease in human . When an infected mosquito sharpness a susceptible person , the pathogens get into the blood stream and develop inside our red blood cellphone , or erythrocytes . Although these serve as mini - parasite factories , they unfortunately do n’t importantly alter the cell ’s characteristic , which set aside them to get overstep our blood ’s filtrate system : the short temper .
Normally , erythrocyte are malleable so that they can contract through cockeyed capillaries , but as they get unhealthy or old their tractableness reduces , which make them more likely to get adhere in the irascibility and cleared from the body . But the malaria parasites are capable to alter the cell ’s deformability , prevent them from stiffening up and thus ultimately advance transmission by stay in the ancestry , ready to be gobbled up by another hungry mosquito that takes a meal .
Researchers therefore figured that if they could aid the infected cell indurate up , they might be able to cut their perseverance in the circulation and thus ultimately interrupt further malaria transmission system . After key that deformability is regulated by a tract that involves a molecule call cAMP , which promotes stiffening when it builds up inside cells , scientists from the Institut Cochin , the Institut Pasteur and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine sought to get hold a way of altering its levels .
As line inPLOS Pathogens , they chance that cAMP is cheapen by an enzyme called phosphodiesterase , so they start screen a bank of potential agents to see if any block off its activity , which would prevent cAMP levels from dropping . Of those examined , they key several that were efficient at inhibiting this enzyme , including Viagra , which made cadre less deformable and thus less likely to sneak through the spleen and remain in circulation . Although they have yet to see if the same happen in animals or humans , they did demonstrate their effectiveness in a framework of the spleen ’s filtration organisation . But since Viagra is already licensed , get approval for clinical trials should be relatively bare .
Of of course , if Viagra were to be debate for utilisation in human , then it would involve to bemodifiedso that it does n’t cause that perhaps unwelcome side effect , which could certainly make things a tad ungainly .
