Viagra fights heart and lung diseases

German researchers have reported on the impact of Viagra on pulmonary hypertension at the Frontiers of Vascular Medicine Conference at Monash University this week.

High blood pressure in the vessels of the lung results in a dramatic reduction of quality of life and often to heart failure. There are limited treatments for pulmonary hypertension which causes 10 per cent of all cases of heart failure worldwide.

In 2004 Professors Friedrich Grimminger and Werner Seeger from the German University of Giessen Lung Centre showed Viagra protected mountain climbers' lungs from problems associated with high altitude.

This, and other discoveries by the German team led to the US Food and Drug Administration approving Viagra's active ingredient - sildenafil citrate - in June this year for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension.

Their latest trial, in rabbits, has shown Viagra not only lowers blood pressure but also regenerates diseased blood vessels.

The researchers now plan to enter into collaboration with Monash to bring their research to Australia.

Professor Harald Schmidt, one of the leaders of the German research, has been recruited to lead a new Australian attack on cardiovascular disease, as head of Monash University's Department of Pharmacology.

"Blood vessel diseases such as stroke, pulmonary hypertension, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease represent the number one cause of death worldwide," Professor Schmidt said.

"How these diseases develop is insufficiently understood. Consequently, only symptoms such as elevated blood pressure rather than causes of diseases can be treated. We need to do better."

There are plans to create a Centre of Excellence for Vascular Health at Monash, said Professor Warwick Anderson, head of the School of Biomedical Sciences .

The Frontiers of Vascular Medicine conference brings together researchers from German and US centres of excellence, the Baker Institute, RMIT, the University of Melbourne, the Australian Synchrotron, and many other Australian universities and institutes.