Menthol for the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction: Generation and Technology Export

Abstract

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is considered a public health problem with numerous risk factors, such as hypertension. Besides the existing oral treatment for ED, there are individuals that do not respond to or present numerous side effects to this therapy. Changes in the TRP channels can lead to several clinical complications, such as hypertension. More specifically, the cooling-sensing TRPM8 channel could be a novel target for the development of new drugs. In this line, menthol, a natural product TRPM8 channel agonist may be a molecule for use to treat erectile dysfunction. Then, we conducted a patent review to evaluate the application of menthol focusing on the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The search was conducted on Espacenet® associating A61K31/045 and A61K36/534 codes or using keywords, “erectile dysfunction AND menthol”. We analyzed 1,331 patents, which fourteen patents were found with the use of menthol in the genitourinary system. Although the patents had menthol in their formulations, none went directly to the development of pharmaceutical applications to treat erectile dysfunction. Taking these data into account, the use of menthol in the treatment of erectile dysfunction has been underexplored and is an opportunity for research and technological development based on a high innovation potential.