Viagra shows promise for use in bone marrow transplants

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have demonstrated a new, rapid method to obtain donor stem cells for bone marrow transplants using a combination of Viagra and a second drug called Plerixafor.

Bone marrow transplants, used mostly in the treatment of cancer, are life-saving procedures to restore the stem cells that generate new blood cells throughout a person’s life. These blood-forming cells (called “hematopoietic stem cells”) normally reside only in the bone marrow. Obtaining them for transplants originally required drilling into the hip bone and using a special needle to remove cells directly from the bone marrow. Now it is more common to collect the cells from the blood, using drugs to get the stem cells to move from the bone marrow into the bloodstream.

The standard drug regimen for coaxing stem cells from the marrow to the bloodstream requires daily injections of the growth factor GCSF for several days before the stem cells can be collected, typically after 4 to 6 days of GCSF injections. Although less invasive than extracting cells directly from the bone marrow, this regimen is not always successful, often causes bone pain and other side effects, and cannot be tolerated by many patients who might otherwise benefit from a bone marrow transplant.

Camilla Forsberg, above, is a professor of biomolecular engineering at UC Santa Cruz and senior author of the paper. (Source: UCSC website)

The new study, published October 10 in Stem Cell Reports, demonstrates an alternative regimen that mobilizes stem cells from the bone marrow in just 2 hours. It involves a single oral dose of Viagra followed two hours later by a single injection of Plerixafor.

“Our approach could significantly increase the number of patients who could benefit from bone marrow transplants,” said Camilla Forsberg, professor of biomolecular engineering at UC Santa Cruz and senior author of the paper. “Even though there are already ways to do this, the standard regimen doesn’t work for everyone.”

Continue reading here: https://news.ucsc.edu/2019/10/bone-marrow-transplants.html

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