Erectile dysfunction medications |
| Online pharmacy provides you, the customer, with best service and value. An innovative drug-delivery system – nanoparticles encapsulating nitric oxide or prescription drugs – shows promise for topical treatment of erectile dysfunction, according to a new study by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The new system, tested successfully on a small number of animals, could potentially prevent side effects associated with oral erectile dysfunction medications, if study results can be replicated in humans. That could mean safer and more effective erectile dysfunction therapy for millions of men with heart disease and other health problems affecting erectile function. The study is published today in the online edition of the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Tens of millions of men worldwide have benefited from oral erectile dysfunction medications such as sildenafil (Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra), and tadalafil (Cialis). However, these medications - which belong to a class of drugs called phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors - have limitations. The drug-delivery system, developed by Einstein scientists, consists of nanoparticles – each smaller than a grain of pollen – that can carry tiny payloads of various drugs or other medically useful substances and release them in a controlled and sustained manner. The limited number of topical formulations of erectile dysfunction drugs has so far proven ineffective. This study was done to evaluate whether the Einstein nanoparticles, which have been shown to penetrate the skin, might allow the targeted delivery of compounds that treat erectile dysfunction and thereby avoid the drugs' systemic effects. The nanoparticles were tested on a total of 18 rats bred to have age-related erectile dysfunction. The rats were divided into three treatment groups. One group of seven rats received nanoparticles encapsulating NO. A second group of five rats received nanoparticles encapsulating NO plus an experimental ED drug called sialorphin (which has a mechanism of action different from PDE5 inhibitors). A third group of 6 received nanoparticles encapsulating NO plus tadalafil (Cialis). Five of the seven rats treated with the NO-containing nanoparticles, and all 11 rats treated with nanoparticles encapsulating NO plus sialorphin or tadalafil showed significantly improved erectile function. None of the seven rats in a control group, which received empty nanoparticles, showed any improvement. Postmortem examination of the tissues at the site of administration showed no signs of local inflammation or toxicity. "In addition, when we applied the nanoparticles at therapeutic doses, we found no indication of systemic side effects," says Dr. Friedman. The Einstein research team will carry out safety and dosing studies in rats in the coming months. Clinical studies on humans could begin in a few years if animal studies continue to show that the nanoparticle delivery system is safe and effective. But the investigators caution that the time from a proof-of-concept trial in animals to approved use in humans may be a decade or more. |