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There is some hope for men coping with prolonged yet painful bouts of erections, or priapism.
Researchers discovered that adenosine deaminase (AD), an enzyme, may prevent priapism from progressing to penile fibrosis -- build-up of scar tissue -- that leads to impotence.
"Coping with priapism is hard enough, but knowing that it can ultimately lead to fibrosis within the penis adds insult to injury," said Gerald Weissmann, clinician and editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal which published the report.
"Hopefully this discovery can yield new drugs that relieve the excitatory signals sent by adenosine so that these men get some relief," he added.
Researchers used two priapism mice models to determine the role of increased adenosine in penile fibrosis. Both of these sets of mutant mice were treated with the AD enzymes to lower adenosine levels.
After eight weeks, researchers found that this enzyme lowered adenosine levels in the penises of both groups, successfully preventing and correcting penile fibrosis.
"This finding led to a novel therapeutic possibility to treat and prevent this dangerous complication seen in priapic humans by targeting this signalling pathway in the near future," said Yang Xia, from the University of Texas-Houston.
