Gene therapy in combination with blue light may turn out to be an effective way to treat erectile dysfunction – informs the EurekAlert website.
Erectile dysfunction appears in some men after the age of 30, and after XNUMX, it affects half of men. The main causes include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hormonal disorders, neurological diseases, and drug side effects. Medicines like sildenafil (Viagra) help to prolong an erection, but they do not make it on their own. Perhaps the solution will be gene therapy developed by the team of Prof. Martin Fussenegger from Basel (Switzerland).
The blue light gene is inserted into the erectile tissue of the penis. As soon as this organ is exposed to light, the precursor to the guanosine triphosphate (GTP) molecule is converted to cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). This allows the tension-dependent calcium channels to close, which in turn reduces the level of calcium in the cells, relaxes the muscle cells and increases blood flow to the cavernous and spongy bodies, leading to an erection. An enzyme that slowly breaks down cGMP makes your erection weaker over time (this enzyme is blocked by sildenafil).
So far, the method has been successfully tested on male rats. In some rodents, blue light even caused ejaculation. Taking into account the physiological similarities between different species of mammals, Prof. Fussenegger believes that this kind of gene therapy could also work in humans (for example, Viagra works in rats). The injections needed for the therapy would not be painful. For now, scientists are trying to get funds to finance costly clinical trials involving humans. (PAP)