Viagra helps fight malaria

Scientists have discovered an unexpected effect of the "Viagra" drug, which helps slow the spread of malaria.

Unexpected effects of Viagra in the treatment of malaria

Experts believe that the astonishing discovery could provide a new treatment, helping to prevent the spread of malaria within a population group.

Viagra has been dubbed the "precursor drug", treating erectile dysfunction in men.(Photo: Corbis)

According to new research, by giving malaria patients Viagra, we can eliminate the spread of this highly infectious disease . The bottom line is the hardening ability of the drug to treat erectile dysfunction.

The researchers said that by giving patients the Viagara medication to alter the shape of the parasite cell that triggered the disease, they increased the strength of the patient's spleen, helping them filter out. The virus comes out of the blood. They believe that this could prevent the transmission of malaria parasites from humans to mosquitoes and reduce the number of mosquitoes containing germs - a factor that spreads disease on a large scale.

The malaria parasite , Plasmodium falciparum, has a complex developmental cycle, partially completed in humans and partly in mosquitoes. When entering the human body, this parasite resides in red blood cells in the form of asexual. These blood cells burst and some parasites continued to poison, causing more red blood cells to burst, causing symptoms of malaria.

The diagram shows that Viagra prevents malaria parasites from turning into a sickle shape that easily penetrates the spleen's screen into the bloodstream, making them unable to infect mosquitoes that bite patients.(Photo: Daily Mail)

Meanwhile, other malaria parasites re-enter red blood cells to grow into males and females, called gamete maternal cells . These gamete maternal cells distort the blood cells into a crescent-shaped shape, slipping through the dialysis membrane of the spleen without being detected. As adults, they are free to circulate in the blood and can spread back to mosquitoes when these insects burn the carriers.

Malaria treatments currently target only the parasitic clones. However, they have little or no effect on sexual forms, which are the culprits that transmit pathogens to mosquitoes and then spread the disease in humans.

To solve this problem, the researchers sought to change the shape of human blood cells infected with the disfigured Plasmodium falciparum maternal mother cells, so that the spleen could capture them. They discovered that, if patients were to take Viagra, they could affect a molecular signal that hardens the shape of the parasite , causing the infected blood cells to be inflexible, easily prone to leaves. spleen detected and locked up.

Professor David Baker, co-author of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, stressed: " We have learned from our previous research that inhibits the parasite phosphodiesterase enzymes. Malaria or removal of genes encoding them, can destroy the growth of pathogens.

In the new study, we found that Viagra, a drug that has been shown to be safe in humans, can make the forms of malaria parasite more rigid, making them less active in the spleen. , and thus preventing the spread of sexual parasites into mosquitoes. This is an interesting proof, which gives us hope to develop new drugs, specifically targeting parasite phosphodiesterase enzymes and preventing infection. "