Possible Treatment for Erectile Dysfunction Resulting from Priapism

Much more than a comedic story arc on your favorite hospital drama, priapism is a serious condition that remains a mystery to scientists and a curse for people who experience it. Recently researchers at the The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, with the help of some enzyme deficient mice, have discovered something that could lead to a better understanding of priapism, and to a preventative treatment for erectile dysfunction that often results from it.

Primarily associated with men, priapism refers to prolonged erections lasting at least four hours, and usually more than six, in the absence of sexual stimulation. In men priapism is associated with penile fibrosis (hard lumps on the penis that can be painful, cause the penis to bend, and contribute to erectile dysfunction). When it occurs, it's considered a urological emergency. Women experience priapism as well, but reports are much rarer.

The cause of priapism is unknown as is the precise relationship between prolonged erections and penile fibrosis. About 40% of men with sickle cell disease experience priapism, and when there is research in this area, sickle cell is often a disease of interest.

The research, which is reported online in the journal of The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology started with an unexpected discovery. Researchers noticed that some of their lab mice were having prolonged erections and penile fibrosis. There wasn't any sexual stimulation (it wasn't one of those kinds of laboratories) so researchers considered the causes. What they discovered was that the mice in question had elevated levels of adenosine. When they reduced the levels of this molecule, using an enzyme called ADA, they were able to reduce the penile fibrosis both in mice with sickle cell and mice that were adenosine deficient.

Taking this research to human populations shouldn't be such a leap as the drug they used to treat the mice is already approved for humans for treatment of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease (known in popular culture as the "Bubble Boy Disease"). This doesn't represent a cure for priapism, or as yet offer an answer to its cause, but it may be an important preventative treatment for a difficult long-term consequence of priapism in men.

Read more - Drug shows promise in treating dangerous complication of erectile disorder