New Treatment Promising for Erectile Dysfunction

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Reuters Health

NEW YORK-Preliminary trials with a synthetic version of a hormone produced in the brain have enabled men with erectile dysfunction to maintain an erection, researchers report.

In the study, 10 men with erectile dysfunction caused by conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, injury or high blood pressure, were given injections with Melanotan II. The results are published in the October issue of the journal Urology.

"About 60 percent of the Melanotan injections that were given resulted in the men achieving erections," according to Dr. Hunter Wessells, of the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. "Over the course of 6 hours (about the time the drug wears off), the men experienced about 2.5 erections," he told Reuters Health.

"The Melanotan caused the men to get an erection without sexual stimulation, and we believe the drug acts on a region of the brain in the hypothalamus," Wessells said in the interview. Melanotan also increased the sexual desire of the men.

The drug takes about 1.5 hours to take effect and about 20 percent of the men experienced nausea as a side effect, Wessells explained. The researchers are continuing their evaluation and at this early stage they are primarily "concerned with drug safety, side effects and figuring how exactly it may act on the brain region responsible for stimulating the penis," Wessells said.

"Future work will assess just how low a dose has an erection-causing effect. Lower doses or altering the molecule may reduce side effects," Wessells pointed out in the interview.

Erectile dysfunction affects over 30 million US men to some degree.