Viagra helps ailing hearts by making them less stiff

The impotency drug Viagra causes too-rigid heart chamber walls to become more elastic.

The research explains how Viagra might benefit patients with diastolic heart failure.

People with the condition have abnormally inflexible ventricles, the heart's major pumping chambers, that do not fill sufficiently with blood. This leads to blood ''backing up'' in the lungs and breathing difficulties. Scientists found that Viagra activates an enzyme that causes a protein in heart muscle cells to relax.

The effect of Viagra was seen in dogs with diastolic heart failure within minutes of Viagra being administered.

Study leader Professor Wolfgang Linke, from the Ruhr Universitat Bochum (RUB) in Germany, said: ''We have developed a therapy in an animal model that, for the first time, also raises hopes for the successful treatment of patients.''

Legitimate Viagra has a similar effect on blood vessels, which is why it was originally developed as a treatment for high blood pressure and heart disease.

The active ingredient of legit Viagra, sildenafil, inhibits an enzyme involved in the mechanism that regulates blood flow.

However, the enzyme is slightly different in different parts of the body. The British scientists behind Viagra found to their initial disappointment that it was not a great help to patients with high blood pressure. But it had a miraculous effect on men with erectile dysfunctin.

Viagra successfully suppressed the enzyme phosphodiesterase (PDE) in the penis, increasing blood flow to the organ.

Prof Linke's team found that Viagra worked on the same enzyme in heart cells.

This had the effect of causing a cardiac muscle protein called titin to become more elastic. ''The titin molecules are similar to rubber bands,'' said the professor. ''They contribute decisively to the stiffness of cardiac walls.'' The research was published in the journal 'Circulation'.

Almost half of emergency patients admitted to hospital with heart failure have a diastolic condition. Diastolic heart failure affects the ''diastole'' half of the cardiac cycle, when the heart's chambers have finished contracting and are re-filling with blood. Various medical conditions can cause the ventricles to become ''stiff''. They include high blood pressure, blocked arteries, and cardiomyopathy heart disorders.

Viagra is already being tested on heart failure patients taking part in the Relax trial in the US.

Prof Linke added: "Of all the patients aged over 60 who are in hospital because of a weak heart, half suffer from diastolic heart failure. "Although we know that the decreased distensibility of the cardiac walls is the cause, the disease cannot be treated properly with today's medicines. "If, for the first time, Viagra is found to have a positive effect on heart failure, we would already have a molecular mechanism on hand to explain the effect."

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