SNF Brain Stroke Samachar-445

[SN Foundation]

Impotence drug can reduce stroke effects

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Courtesy: News Fix, California

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A research study shows that sildenafil can create new brain cells in animals that have had a stroke.
The drug sildenafil has enjoyed success as a treatment for impotence. Now researchers at the Neuroscience Institute at Henry Ford Hospital in the US show that it can also limit damage to the brain after a stroke. Rats who had had an induced stroke were given the drug for six days and then tested after 28 days.

Those treated with sildenafil had more brain cells and better brain function, in terms of agility and movement responses. The researchers think that the drug activates a molecule called cyclic GMP in brain tissue and it is this which leads to the creation of new brain cells.

More research is needed before sildenafil could be applied in humans as a stroke treatment. The current experiments were done because sildenafil is similar, chemically, to other compounds that have been shown to improve brain function in animals after stroke.