Rats can always teach us something new
There are two views of the rat: one as a pest, the other as a useful animal to use for lab testing. I am never completely sure that its poor reputation is not the reason why researchers use it. Do they deliberately pick an unpopular animal for testing purposes rather than some animal humans get all sentimental about? Who knows. But, yet again, the rats have come up trumps.
Those researchers have been feeding levitra to rats. “What!” I hear you exclaim. “Surely rats don’t need any help to reproduce!”
In this instance, the motive is not at all what you might expect. As one of the PDE5 inhibitors, levitra dilates blood vessels and the latest research shows it bridges between the blood and a malignant brain tumor to allow adriamycin, the cancer-fighting drug, a chance to work. It really is strange how selective levitra proves to be. The same chemistry specifically restores erectile function and opens the door to tumors without affecting the normal brain tissue surrounding them.
The results reported in the most recent edition of Brain Research showed significantly smaller tumors and longer periods of survival. It is the difference between 29 days of survival in the control group, and 53 days in the group using levitra and adriamycin. So now the $64,000 question is whether the effect proven in rats will translate into the same effect in human patients. If it does, people may survive brain cancer for significantly longer periods of time. The practical issue will be as to the quality of life allowed to those who are granted this extension of life. No-one has devised a way of asking the rats how they feel during this prolonged period of life.
For now, this remains a very encouraging result from animal testing. We now move on to the ethical examination of any proposal to undertake human testing. In the meantime, levitra remains a highly effective treatment for erectile dysfunction with a growing market
Tags: Levitra
