Could ED Medication Help Prevent Cancer?

New findings published in the journal DNA and Cell Biology suggest that Viagra could help kill off cancer.

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond found evidence that erectile dysfunction drugs like Cialis and Viagra could actually stop the health issue. In fact, current erectile dysfunction drugs significantly reduce the activity of chaperone proteins that are essential in protein folding that's involved in bacteria.

Researchers found that these findings could actually be used to counter the effects of cancer and potentially even Alzheimer's disease.

"Drugs like Celebrex and Viagra are readily available and generally recognized as safe. This study by Booth and colleagues may lead to new applications of these relatively new medicines," Carol Shoshkes Reiss, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, of DNA and Cell Biology and Professor, Departments of Biology and Neural Science, New York University, NY, said in a news release. "The potential impact, if the experiments described are translatable to human disease, could be paradigm-shifting. The potential applications are serious antibiotic resistant infections, chemotherapy-resistant cancers, and neurodegenerative disease ranging from Parkinson's disease to Huntington's or Alzheimer's disease."

During their work, the researchers discovered that an experimental compound that's derived from the drug celecoxib (Celebrex) interacts with the erectile dysfunction medications to help reduce chaperone protein levels. This is particularly important as it helps to reduce levels like HSPA5 and Dna K that can interfere with the virus replication and promote bacterial cell development and even reverse drug resistant superbugs.