Could Viagra Help Prevent Alzheimer’s?

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Viagra, a drug lengthy used to deal with erectile dysfunction, could double as a possible weapon towards Alzheimer’s illness, a brand new examine suggests.

Looking at information on greater than 7 million Americans, researchers discovered that these taking the drug had been 69% much less more likely to develop Alzheimer’s, when in comparison with non-users.

Then, in lab experiments, the investigators confirmed that the remedy appeared to focus on a part of the underlying illness course of in Alzheimer’s.

Still, the findings mustn’t ship anybody operating to the physician for a Viagra prescription, the researchers cautioned.

But they do argue for scientific trials to check the drug towards Alzheimer’s, mentioned senior researcher Feixiong Cheng, of Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute.

Viagra, bought generically as sildenafil, was accredited over 20 years in the past for treating erectile dysfunction. Sildenafil was later accredited underneath a special model identify (Revatio) for pulmonary hypertension, a type of hypertension affecting the lungs.

The drug works by inhibiting a protein referred to as phosphodiesterase-5, which in flip permits blood vessels to loosen up and widen, enhancing blood circulate.

But phosphodiesterases additionally exist within the mind, Cheng mentioned. And current lab analysis has prompt sildenafil could inhibit the irregular protein buildup that could be a hallmark of Alzheimer’s illness. In lab mice engineered to have an Alzheimer’s-like situation, sildenafil has proven motion towards these proteins, and boosted reminiscence and brain-cell formation.

The new findings, printed on-line Dec. 6 within the journal Nature Aging, bolster the case for learning the drug as an Alzheimer’s remedy, Cheng mentioned.

If that occurs, sildenafil would be a part of a rising record of accredited medication that researchers hope to “repurpose” as therapies for Alzheimer’s.

Medications for circumstances starting from diabetes to hypertension to most cancers are already being investigated for that very function, mentioned Dr. Howard Fillit, founding govt director of the nonprofit Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

The basis was amongst a number of funders of the present examine, the first one being the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Fillit agreed that the findings ought to assist transfer sildenafil into Alzheimer’s trials. Ultimately, he mentioned, everybody believes it is going to take a number of approaches, and mixtures of medicines, to battle a illness as advanced as Alzheimer’s.

“We’ll want a number of therapies to focus on the totally different ways in which issues go incorrect within the mind in Alzheimer’s,” Fillit defined.

Repurposing accredited medicines has apparent benefits over ranging from scratch to develop new therapies. Approved medication have a identified security observe file, and they are often dropped at trials comparatively shortly, with much less expense.

Of course, Fillit mentioned, there needs to be a rationale for selecting which medication to repurpose.

For the most recent examine, Cheng’s workforce began with the premise that medication affecting two proteins — amyloid and tau — would have the best potential towards Alzheimer’s. The illness is marked by an irregular clumping of these proteins within the mind, generally often called plaques and tangles.

Research has proven, Cheng mentioned, that the interplay between amyloid and tau is extra necessary than both alone within the Alzheimer’s course of.

His workforce screened over 1,600 accredited medicines, utilizing genetic and different organic information, and finally landed on sildenafil as one of the best candidate as a attainable Alzheimer’s remedy.

Next they used medical health insurance claims from over 7 million Americans to see whether or not sildenafil customers had been at decrease danger of Alzheimer’s. And on common, they had been 69% much less more likely to be identified with the mind illness over six years, versus non-users.

The lowered danger was seen amongst individuals with coronary heart illness, hypertension or diabetes — all danger elements for dementia — in addition to individuals with out these circumstances, Cheng mentioned.

Sildenafil customers even had a decrease Alzheimer’s danger when put next towards individuals on the blood stress drug losartan or the diabetes remedy metformin — each at present underneath examine for battling dementia.

Finally, in experiments with cells taken from Alzheimer’s sufferers, the researchers discovered that sildenafil appeared to inhibit tau and assist mind cell progress.

“This helps the conduct of a scientific trial, after which we’ll have a solution,” Fillit mentioned. “We will not know till we have now trials.”

And though most present sildenafil customers are males, these trials ought to embody each sexes, Cheng’s workforce identified.

For now, Fillit mentioned individuals may help defend their mind well being via way of life selections, together with common train, consuming a nutritious diet, not smoking and getting circumstances comparable to hypertension and diabetes underneath management.

“That’s good not solely to your coronary heart, however your mind, as properly,” he mentioned.

More data

The Alzheimer’s Association has extra on Alzheimer’s danger discount.

SOURCES: Feixiong Cheng, PhD, assistant employees, Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio; Howard Fillit, MD, founding govt director, chief science officer, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, New York City; Nature Aging, Dec. 6, 2021, on-line