Ailing hearts have Viagra to think about before its use in fighting erectile dysfunction since it may help cure heart symptoms dystrophy, varied reports have suggested.

Tests done on mice which have similar conditions with Ducheme muscular (DMD) dystrophy showed that it could improve how the hearts works, Joseph Beavoa of the University of Washington and friends, from the University of North Carolina discovered.

It is unclear how the drug is helping mice, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but they remained hopeful in the treatment for muscular dystrophy.

DMD affects about 3,500 males as per the National Institute of Health.

The researches wrote that DMD is a progressive and genetic disorder of muscle degeneration. The patients lack protein dystrophin due to mutation in the X-linked dystrophin gene.

As the X chromosome is involved, boys are more likely to be affected compared to girls, who have two copies of the chromosome and are to have another healthy gene.

Body muscles break down as the body develops, including heart muscles. Many of the patients suffer from heart failure and die mostly under 40 years of age.

Pfizer Inc sells Viagra called sildernafil, generically, for erectile dysfunction under the market name Revalio to cure pulmonary hypertension, a heart disease. It found in a class, PDE5 inhibitors, and works in different ways to improve blood flow.

The team is funded by NIH and non-profit organizations and tested the product in mice that had damaged hearts as those in muscular dystrophy.

They discovered that it slowed the damage and in some cases solved it.

The researchers went on that although PDE5 inhibitors will not cure fDMD; the studies suggest that hey could be together with current and future therapies.

Image Credit: