Gene Therapy Advances Could Cure Impotence!

The biggest buzz in the world of erectile dysfunction today is “Gene Therapy”. Though this therapy sound s to be a little complicated, but a little advancement in this field could do wonders for the men who suffer from severe impotence. Several studies are still being conducted across the globe to ascertain the possibility whether gene therapy can be used to help men who have severe erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction affects more than 50 percent of men aged 40 to70 and 70 percent above age 70, according to the Massachusetts Male Aging Study. The first human trial of gene transfer therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) indicates that gene therapy that lasts for months and was able to solve most of the symptoms of erectile dysfunction.

In the past, many researchers were of the opinion that viral vectors are the most promising candidates to transfer genetic material into the corpora for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. However, at present, no viral vectors have progressed to the extent where it can be preceded for human trials. In contrast, the use of naked gene therapy, a plasmid expressing the human Maxi-K potassium channel, is the only gene therapy treatment to be evaluated in clinical phase I trials to date. The success of these studies, proving the safety of this treatment, has paved the way for the development of future gene transfer techniques based on similar transfer methods, as well as novel treatment vectors, such as stem cell transfer.

Human gene therapy is a novel, promising step towards the prevention and treatment of disease and Erectile Dysfunction is one such big problem for the people in US and UK. But the most important part of this therapy involves tailoring the method of delivery of a gene of interest to the disease to be treated. And the same mechanism is applicable while clinical trials were conducted for Erectile Dysfunction.Gene transfer to treat malignancies requires a high rate of efficiency of gene penetration and long-term gene expression so that all cells of a cancer will be altered and affected. For this purpose, viral vectors are needed. The target gene is packaged into a viral vector so that the gene can survive without enzymatic breakdown in the body fluids and cytoplasm of the target cells, and be persistently expressed from the nucleoplasm.

The very latest development in this field was achieved when researchers conducted an experiment on rats that had bladder or prostrate operations and in this case, gene therapy was used to bolster the growth of crucial nerves that had been damaged during the surgery. The scientists were extremely pleased with the results on rats and are now busy setting up trials to use the treatment with men suffering from severe erectile dysfunction. The process of adding genes to the nerve cells is not an easy and simple procedure and involves a complicated process by where the genes are injected inside a herpes virus that has been modified so that it cannot replicate. The scientists also added 'nerve growth promoting genes' and then modified it further so that the virus can only act on nerve cells and not any others.

If this sort of treatment is effective it will be perfect for men who have had prostate cancer surgery or surgeries in the bladder region and who very often suffer from nerve damage that in turn results into erectile dysfunction. Though the developments are quite remarkable in this field, but looking at the population of people affected with Erectile Dysfunction, it is not easy to perform a gene therapy on all cases. Even today oral medicines like Generic Viagra and Silagra, Kamagra are doing wonders to the ED affected patients. So any common man might still prefer kamagra over Gene Therapy.