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The " little blue pill " could one solar day have a surprising usance : as a cancer bar drug .
Early research in mice suggest that small-scale doses of sildenafil , the ingredient in Viagra responsible for the anovulatory drug ’s gist , may preventcolorectal Cancer the Crab .
When the researchers gave the drug to mice that were prone to acquire colorectal cancer , the drug was connect to a 50 percent step-down in the phone number of precancerous polyps that form in the animals ' bowel , compared with mice that were n’t given the drug .
Still , much more work is ask before investigator will have sex if Viagra has the same effect in citizenry , the subject researcher say . [ Viagra go Generic : 5 Interesting Facts About the ' Little Blue Pill ' ]
Next stairs let in testing Viagra in a clinical trial of patients who have a high danger of colorectal cancer , such as people with a phratry story of the disease , work co - source Darren Browning , a Crab investigator at Augusta University Georgia Cancer Center , tell in a statementearlier this month .
The mice used in the written report had a genetic mutation in a cistron called " adenomatous polyposis coli " or APC . This mutation is also feel in humanity and results in the shaping of one C of polyps starting in the teen years , and these growth direct to colorectal cancer , Browning said . ( Polyps do not always turn cancerous , however . )
Although sildenafil is best - be intimate for its use as anerectile - dysfunction treatment , the drug has other aesculapian uses ; indeed , it was originally studied as a treatment for gamy blood pressure . Sildenafil is also approved to handle pulmonic arterial hypertension , which is high blood pressure in the vessels that bear blood to the lungs . Sildenafil is even used to helppremature babiesthat have this condition .
The new study used the equivalent weight of a low dose of Viagra , a battery-acid which is not known to have side effects in multitude , Browning said .
Exactly how sildenafil could prevent colorectal Crab is not clear , the researcher say . But the drug come along to increase levels of a chemical substance called GMP , which is acknowledge to affect the intestinal lining , the researchers state . increase cyclic GMP may suppress some of the inordinate cadre growth that occurs in the bowel .
The study was published in the July 2017 takings of the daybook Cancer Prevention Research .
Original article onLive Science .
