About the Authors

Barbara Rinaldi

barbara.rinaldi@unina2.it

Affiliations Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy, Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Regional Centre for Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Maria Donniacuo

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Loredana Sodano

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Giulia Gritti

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Simona Signoriello

Affiliation Department of Mental and Physical Health and Preventive Medicine, Medical Statistics, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Elisabetta Parretta

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Regional Centre for Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Liberato Berrino

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Konrad Urbanek

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Annalisa Capuano

Affiliation Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Regional Centre for Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Francesco Rossi

Affiliations Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Centre of Excellence for Cardiovascular Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy, Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Pharmacology “L. Donatelli”, Regional Centre for Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Competing Interests

The authors declare that Sildenafil citrate was a donation from a commercial source (Pfizer Inc., Groton, CT, USA). This was stated in Acknowledgements and does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BR FR. Performed the experiments: BR MD LS GG EP KU. Analyzed the data: BR MD LS GG SS KU LB AC FR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: EP LB AC FR. Wrote the paper: BR MD SS LB AC FR.