New Study To Examine Effect Of ED Drugs On Muscle Blood Flow

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Muscular Dystrophy: New Study To Examine Effect Of ED Drugs On Muscle Blood Flow

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183564.php

A Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute cardiologist has been awarded a three-year,

nearly $1 million grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) to study

whether drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction could also be used to improve

muscle blood flow and reduce fatigue in muscular dystrophy patients.

The study, led by G. Victor, M.D., associate director of the Cedars-Sinai

Heart Institute, co-directed by Gail , Ph.D. and funded by the Muscular

Dystrophy Association (MDA), is intended to build on recent findings published

in the journal Nature showing beneficial effects of tadalafil (also known as

Cialis) in mice with an animal version of Duchenne and Becker muscular

dystrophy. Only two doses of tadalafil improved muscle blood flow, allowing the

dystrophic mice to perform more exercise with less muscle injury.

Victor's new short-term clinical trial will move the testing from animals to

human patients with Becker muscular dystrophy and examine the effects of acute

tadalafil dosing on muscle blood flow during a bout of exercise. Patients will

take two doses of tadalafil prior to exercising. Then doctors will measure

whether muscles receive increased blood flow and therefore are better protected

during exercise.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an inherited wasting disease characterized by

weakness and progressive degeneration of the muscles -- including the heart

muscle - and is caused by a genetic mutation of dystrophin, a protein vital to

healthy muscles. Muscle degeneration usually begins in the legs and pelvis, but

later affects the whole body. By age 10, most patients experience heart

problems. By their early-teenage years, most people with Duchenne muscular

dystrophy are in a wheelchair. Becker muscular dystrophy is a milder form of

muscular dystrophy that typically is diagnosed in early-adulthood.

" This is an exciting next step in the research I have been doing for 25 years,

because we don't need to create a new drug -- the drug already exists, " Victor

said. " We now have the opportunity to find out if tadalafil can offer some hope

for improving the lives of patients and allow them to do more exercise with less

muscle injury. "

Victor's study is open to adult males 18 - 55 who have Becker muscular dystrophy

as well as adult males who don't have it. The study includes includes hand grip

exercise testing, measurements of muscle blood flow and oxygen delivery, and

magnetic resonance imaging of the muscles.