Viagra was originally developed to treat high blood pressure and chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart, but over the past three decades it has become the world’s best-known therapy for erectile dysfunction. In the future, this blockbuster drug may find yet another use. In a study published recently in Cancer Research, scientists in the lab of Prof. Ayelet Erez at the Weizmann Institute of Science found that sildenafil, Viagra’s active ingredient, may restrict cancer metastasis through a newly discovered biological mechanism.

The researchers, led by Dr. Yarden Ariav in Erez’s lab, showed that sildenafil limits cancer cells’ ability to make use of cholesterol, an essential component of cellular membranes. Cholesterol is particularly important for cancer cells seeking to break away from the primary tumor, migrate throughout the body and invade distant organs. When their access to cholesterol is disrupted, these cells have a harder time forming metastases.

Sildenafil creates this disruption by blocking an enzyme called phosphodiesterase type 5, or PDE5, thereby increasing the levels of a signaling molecule known as cGMP. Elevated cGMP levels dilate blood vessels, increasing blood flow to the penis – the effect that has made Viagra a successful treatment for erectile dysfunction. But Erez’s team discovered that cGMP also binds to a protein responsible for transporting cholesterol within cells. As a result, less cholesterol is available for the cell’s needs, and cancer cells, it turns out, are particularly vulnerable to this reduction in cholesterol supply.

The researchers also found that combining drugs from the Viagra family with statins – another widely used class of drugs, which reduce cholesterol production in the body – may be even more effective at restricting metastasis. The combination could not only limit cancer cells’ access to existing cholesterol but also prevent them from producing new cholesterol, potentially enhancing the anti-metastatic effect.