Some drugs prescribed for prostate enlargement may also protect against Lewy body dementia.
- A new study suggests that some drugs commonly used to treat an enlarged prostate may also reduce the risk of Lewy body dementia.
- In fact, terazosin, doxazosin and alfuzosin stimulate energy production in the brain, a phenomenon that could help slow dementia.
- For example, men taking terazosin had about a 40% lower risk of developing a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia compared with men taking tamsulosin (another treatment for an enlarged prostate).
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. It is estimated that nearly 250,000 people in France are affected by this pathology, which causes a significant decline in cognitive abilities. While there is currently no treatment for this disorder, researchers at the University of Iowa suggest that drugs commonly used to treat prostate hypertrophy could reduce the risk of developing dementia with Lewy bodies.
For this study published on June 19, 2024 in the journal Neurologythe team used a large database of patient information to identify 643,000 men who did not have Lewy body dementia. However, they had all started taking one of six drugs used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlarged prostate).
Lewy Body Dementia: 3 Drugs Boost Energy Production in Brain Cells
By analyzing the effects of these treatments, the researchers then made a surprising observation: three of them – terazosin, doxazosin and alfuzosin – stimulate energy production in brain cells. However, preclinical studies suggest that this ability could help slow down or prevent neurodegenerative diseases such as Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
After following these participants for several years, the scientists found that these drugs against prostate hypertrophy did indeed have a protective effect. “We found that men who took terazosin, doxazosin or alfuzosin were less likely to develop a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.”explains the study’s lead author, Jacob Simmering, in a communicated. “Overall, men taking terazosin-type drugs had about a 40% lower risk of developing a diagnosis of DLB compared with men taking tamsulosin (an enlarged prostate drug that has no effect on brain energy production, editor’s note) and about a 37% reduction in risk compared with men taking five alpha reductase inhibitors (other treatments for prostate disorders, editor’s note).”
Lewy body dementia: a potential safe and inexpensive preventive treatment
For the team, their results are particularly encouraging, especially since these three drugs are already authorized by health authorities, inexpensive and have been used safely for decades.
“If terazosin and similar drugs can help slow this progression, or even prevent the disease altogether, that would be important for preserving cognitive function and quality of life in people with Lewy body dementia.”rejoices Jacob Simmering.
However, more research is needed to confirm that the observed association between taking these treatments and the reduction in the risk of Lewy body dementia is indeed a proven causal relationship. Furthermore, the scientists point out that since the drugs are prescribed for prostate problems, they do not know, at this time, whether their results would apply to women.