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Viagra could help Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease may actually be caused by a failure of the immune response, a new study suggests.

It was previously thought that the disease was caused by excess inflammation. The latest findings suggest that Crohn's sufferers could be given the anti-impotence drug Viagra to boost blood flow to an infected site, thus improving the body’s inflammatory response to infection. The University College London (UCL) study is published in The Lancet. Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the bowel, where lesions and ulcers form on the bowel walls. It can lead to severe gastrointestinal symptoms (sometimes requiring surgery) and chronic ill health.

Many causes have been suggested for the disease, including infection with tuberculosis, other bacteria or viruses thought to trigger an excessive inflammatory response. In the UCL study, researchers investigated whether the disease is instead caused by impaired innate immunity. They found a defective immune response in Crohn's sufferers, based on a lack of white blood cells sent to destroy bacteria. Normally, when the immune system identifies an infection or injury, it produces cytokines which summon the most common form of white blood cells - neutrophils - to the infection site. When the neutrophils encounter bacteria they engulf, kill and digest the bacteria. Pus then forms, made up of dead neutrophils and other cell debris. The team measured cytokine production (interleukin-8 or IL-8) and neutrophil recruitment at injury sites in the bowel and skin of Crohn's patients and a control group of healthy individuals and patients with other types of inflammation.

Source: http://www.999today.com/health/news/story/2807.html