Can Levitra Protect Your Heart?

Posted on December 26th, 2007 by olga

Let’s give our attention to ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2006) This newspaper published the information that the widespread erectile dysfunction drug Levitra is now the second drug in its class found to defend the heart against tissue harm following acute heart attack, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.
Rakesh C. Kukreja, Ph.D., professor of medicine, physiology, biochemistry and emergency medicine at VCU. Kukreja is direct author of the study wrote that their discoveries further maintain the concept that the novel class of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, or PDE-5 inhibitors, as well as Levitra and Viagra, may have a new usefulness in cardiac defense, besides their famous use for the managing of erectile dysfunction in men.
It’s really true that Kukreja and his colleagues began studying sildenafil in 2002 as part of ongoing research into “preconditioning,” a way to defend the heart muscle from severe harm in the future by subjecting it to very brief periods of deprivation of blood flow and, consequently, oxygen.
Moreover, Kukreja and his team showed for the first time that pretreatment with a clinically relevant dose of Levitra, generically known as vardenafil, encourages a defensive effect against heart attack injury by opening the mitochondrial KATP channel in an animal model.
And as a matter of fact, according to Kukreja, PDE-5 is an enzyme responsible for the ruin of cGMP, an intracellular messenger molecule, in heart cells. He said that the mitochondrial KATP channel and cGMP play a vital role in preconditioning of the heart following a heart attack. The cGMP as well has a hand in the dilation of arteries in the body. PDE-5 inhibitor drugs, such as vardenafil, sildenafil, the generic term for Viagra, and tadalafil, the generic name for Cialis, are able to save cGMP, and so dilation of the arteries by inhibiting PDE-5.
As well, Kukreja believed that the PDE-5 inhibitors may be developed for future use to defend the brain, liver and other organs against ischemic injury – those injuries that are caused by lack of oxygen.
It’s really true that Vardenafil, like sildenafil, stabilizes the mitochondria and defends against harm of the heart by opening the mitochondrial KATP channels in cardiac cells. Mitochondria are cellular organelles critical for converting oxygen into ATP, the key fuel for cellular function.
George Vetrovec, M.D., chair of cardiology at VCU’s School of Medicine, who is internationally recognized for his research on coronary artery disease, wrote that this study made available significant information about the mechanism by which the PDE-5 inhibitors work. Additionally, it was proof that the positive discoveries of prior studies on sildenafil enlarge to another PDE-5 inhibitor.
And as a matter of fact, Vetrovec recommended that PDE-5 inhibitors such as sildenafil and vardenafil may one day be given to patients who are at high risk for acute heart attack or prior to experiencing coronary artery bypass surgery to optimize heart protection.
And give your attention to the fact this work was hold by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.