Can an “optimized” Viagra accelerate cutaneous wound healing?

Wound repair is an essential physiological process maintaining tissue homeostasis, involving multiple cell types that secrete numerous growth factors, cytokines, and chemokines. The process progresses through three major overlapping phases, called hemostasis and inflammation, new tissue formation, and remodeling. Ulcerative skin defects (chronic wounds) , do not follow these sequence of events and the major causes for their formation are vascular insufficiency, diabetes mellitus and local pressure. The high incidence of non-healing diabetic ulcers and the resulting morbidity require the development of new strategies improving the healing process. Here, we investigate the effect of a novel bioactive compound on wound repair in healthy and diabetic mice. The compound has a dual pharmacological activity, acting as NO donor and phosphodiesterase inhibitor, thereby enhancing cGMP levels in the tissue, targeting the endothelial dysfunction in diabetic wounds. Intradermal compound injection at the wound edges resulted in enhanced wound closure, increased keratinocyte proliferation and enhanced angiogenesis and blood vessel stabilization and maturation in healthy mice. More important, diabetic wounds demonstrated a significant increase in wound re-epithelization and keratinocyte proliferation. These results show that treatment with the compound in the localized regenerative milieu of a diabetic wound improves the healing process and supports the further development of an efficient dermal delivery system containing the compound.