The medication sildenafil - which is sold as 'viagra' by Pfizer and under other commercial names by other companies - improves insulin sensitivity in people with prediabetes and also reduces a biological marker that indicates a greater risk of kidney and heart diseases, according to a new study published in 'Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & AMP;Metabolism '.
Insulin resistance precedes the development of type 2 diabetes, which is characterized by high blood sugar levels and occurs when the individual cannot produce enough insulin hormone or insulin does not work properly to clear the sugarof blood.
More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, according to data from the Endocrinology Society.Among adults throughout the country, three out of ten present prediabetes and without adopting some type of intervention, up to 30% of people with prediabetes are prone to develop type 2 diabetes within five years.
"We need additional strategies to help curb the progression of prediabetes to diabetes -Apunta Nancy J. Brown, of the University of Vanderbilt Medicine, in Nashville, Tennesse, United States.
Weight loss and exercise can be difficult to maintain and some current medications have been limited by concerns about adverse effects.Sildenafil and related drugs could offer a potential route to address the growing number of diabetes diagnoses. "
Sildenafil, which is known for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, works by inhibiting an enzyme that breaks a relaxing natural chemist of blood vessels called CGMP.Other developing drugs also increase CGMP levels in the body.
In this study, the researchers randomly assigned 51 individuals overweight with sildenafil or placebo treatment for three months, to which it underwent a hyperglycemic clamp before and at the end of the treatment to evaluate the insulin secretion stimulated by theglucose and estimate insulin sensitivity.Urine samples were also collected to measure albumin and creatinine, heart and renal health indicators.
Among the 42 participants who completed the study, the researchers found that those who were treated with sildenafil were more sensitive to the effects of insulin.Those who took sildenafil also had lower levels of albumin in the urine than placebo.High levels of albumin in urine are a risk marker for kidney and heart disease.
"Because therapies with existing medications to prevent type 2 diabetes can have negative effects on the heart or be of limited use in patients with renal disease, strategies to prevent diabetes without negatively affecting the risk of kidney and heart diseasesThey could have a great impact on public health, "Brown is needed.
