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Viagra shows promise in prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

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Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Observational study: A study in which the subject is observed to see if there is a relationship between two or more things (eg: the consumption of diet drinks and obesity). Observational studies cannot prove that one thing causes another, only that they are linked.

People: This is a study based on research using people.

The little blue pill might have additional benefits for older men. In an analysis of 7.23 million people’s insurance claims, researchers found that Viagra prescriptions for erectile dysfunction and hypertension were associated with a 69% reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. The authors say this correlation does not necessarily prove that the drug prevents Alzheimer’s, and the fact it's mainly prescribed for erectile dysfunction meant that there weren’t enough women included in the study.

Journal/conference: Nature Aging

Link to research (DOI): 10.1038/s43587-021-00138-z

Organisation/s: Cleveland Clinic, Indiana University, Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University

Funder: This work was primarily supported by the National Institute of Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number R01AG066707 to F.C. This work was supported in part by U01AG073323, 3R01AG066707-01S1, 3R01AG066707-02S1, and 1R56AG074001-01 to F.C. This work was supported in part by the Translational Therapeutics Core of the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (NIH/NIA: P30AG072959) to F.C., A.A.P. and J.C. This work was supported in part by the Brockman Foundation, Project 19PABH134580006-AHA/Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment, the Elizabeth Ring Mather & William Gwinn Mather Fund, S. Livingston Samuel Mather Trust, and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center resources and facilities to A.A.P. This work was supported in part by the NIA grant R35AG071476 and the Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery foundation (ADDF) to J.C.

Media release

From: Springer Nature

Prescription of sildenafil — a drug used to treat pulmonary hypertension and erectile dysfunction — is associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in Nature Aging. These findings suggest that repurposed sildenafil may be a therapeutic option for this disease.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of age-related dementia, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. There is currently no effective treatment for AD, which, as a result of population aging, leads to large and growing financial and disease burdens on society.

Using a computational approach, Feixiong Cheng colleagues integrated genetic and other biological data to build 13 disease ‘endophenotype modules’ that capture the biological signatures of AD. These modules were mapped onto a large network of 351,444 human protein–protein interactions. Network proximity scores were then generated for over 1,600 FDA-approved drugs, with a higher score indicating that a drug physically interacts with multiple molecular targets within AD-related modules. Sildenafil was assigned one of the top scores, suggesting that it might influence AD. To test this, the authors analysed insurance claims data from over seven million people in the US, revealing that the prescription of sildenafil was significantly associated with a 69% reduction in the risk of AD diagnosis after 6 years of follow-up. Potential influential factors such as sex, race and age were adjusted for, with the former being particularly important as sildenafil is mainly used to treat erectile dysfunction in men.

The authors caution that their study design cannot demonstrate a causal relationship between use of a particular drug and risk of AD. Randomized, clinical trials involving both sexes with a placebo control are therefore needed to determine sildenafil’s efficacy in this context.

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