Further to our blog regarding Sildenafil’s potential use as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, this active ingredient, which is the main ingredient found in Viagra, has been found to treat a form of melanoma in mice.
Researchers at the University Medical Centre, Mannheim, studied malignant melanoma and the chronic inflammation that accompanies it.
Mice that were genetically modified to develop a certain type of skin cancer, similar to human forms of melanoma, were treated with sildenafil, as sildenafil has previously been shown in studies to improve an animal’s defence against developing tumours.
Some of the mice were fed sildenafil in their drinking water and twice the amount of mice survived when taking this treatment as opposed to those not taking the treatment.
T-cell counts and the number of activating molecules normalized while the mice were on sildenafil which was a promising find considering that the disease takes a similar form in human beings. It is hoped that sildenafil will affect the immune systems response in humans just as effectively.