New analysis is the newest to counsel that sildenafil—the lively ingredient in standard erectile dysfunction drug Viagra—would possibly assist fend off Alzheimer’s illness. The research discovered that individuals taking sildenafil had been noticeably much less prone to develop Alzheimer’s than comparable sufferers not taking it. The outcomes don’t but show that the little blue tablet is efficient in opposition to the neurological dysfunction, nonetheless, and scientific trials can be wanted to know for positive, the researchers say.
The research, published within the Journal of Alzheimer’s Illness, was led by scientists from the Cleveland Clinic. In 2021, the identical workforce revealed a paper discovering proof within the lab and from insurance coverage claims information that sildenafil may forestall or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s in older individuals—maybe decreasing danger by as a lot as 69%. Some researchers have questioned whether or not the research’s design was really in a position to present a transparent hyperlink between lowered Alzheimer’s and sildenafil use, nonetheless. The very subsequent yr, one other research that examined Medicare information failed to find such a connection.
This debate isn’t over, although. This February, a 3rd analysis workforce studied healthcare information from the UK and found a major, if smaller, lowered danger of Alzheimer’s related to sildenafil. And now the authors of the unique research say they’ve uncovered extra proof to help the speculation.
This time round, the workforce analyzed claims information from two massive affected person databases. They in contrast sufferers taking sildenafil with sufferers taking one in every of 4 medicine generally used to deal with pulmonary hypertension, a sort of hypertension affecting the lungs. Whereas sildenafil is greatest referred to as an erectile dysfunction support, it’s additionally authorized and generally used for this situation as nicely.
The workforce as soon as once more discovered that the sufferers on sildenafil had been much less prone to later be recognized with Alzheimer’s than the comparability teams, with a lowered danger starting from 30% to 54%. In addition they performed extra lab experiments, testing sildenafil on neurons grown from the stem cells of Alzheimer’s sufferers. They discovered that the drug appeared to advertise the expansion of neurites (the projections that neurons use to speak with one another) and lowered the buildup of a doubtlessly poisonous type of tau protein (one of many two proteins thought liable for inflicting Alzheimer’s)—a possible clue as to how sildenafil would possibly truly decrease Alzheimer’s danger.
“Our findings present additional weight to re-purposing this current FDA-approved drug as a novel remedy for Alzheimer’s, which is in nice want of recent therapies,” mentioned senior writer Feixiong Cheng in a statement from the Cleveland Clinic.
The scientists are fast to warning that their analysis can’t present conclusively that sildenafil can forestall or delay Alzheimer’s. However they and different scientists say there’s been sufficient encouraging information collected to at the least benefit a larger-scale and extra definitive take a look at of this speculation.
“We consider our findings present the proof wanted for scientific trials to additional study the potential effectiveness of sildenafil in sufferers with Alzheimer’s illness,” mentioned Cheng.
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