The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation has been buying Viagra, in a good cause: it seems to help beat one of the common malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum.
The mechanism is even analogous to Viagra's better-known effect: it makes infected red blood cells stiffer, which marks them down to be cleaned out by the spleen.
The full journal article is available at PLOS Pathogens: cAMP-Signalling Regulates Gametocyte-Infected Erythrocyte Deformability Required for Malaria Parasite Transmission.
(Score: 1) by martyb on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:04PM
Thanks for the confirmation — given the limited information available, it was a bit of a struggle!
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.