In a new study, American scientists claim that sildenafil – the generic name for Viagra – reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by almost 70%.
- Sildenafil users are 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than non-users.
- The drug, which is a generic of Viagra, targets both amyloid beta and tau – two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease – and is more effective than some treatments that target only one or the other.
Is viagra the long-awaited treatment for Alzheimer’s disease?
This neurodegenerative disease, which affects nearly a million people in France, leads progressively and irreversibly to dysfunction, then to the death of nerve cells in the brain. And, despite the growing number of cases, there is currently no truly effective treatment to reverse its symptoms or even slow its progression.
In a study published in the journal Nature Agingresearchers at the Cleveland Clinic appear to have identified a promising treatment to help prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease: sildenafil, a generic drug used for erectile dysfunction (Viagra) and pulmonary hypertension (Ravatio).
The best candidate among 1,600 drugs
Using an extensive genetic mapping network, as well as a database of over 7 million patients, researchers determined that sildenafil is associated with a 69% reduction in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
They also started from a postulate: that it is the accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins and tau proteins in the brain that leads to cerebral changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
“Recent studies show that the interaction between amyloid and tau contributes more to Alzheimer’s disease than either alone, explains Feixiong Cheng, of the Cleveland Clinic’s Institute of Genomic Medicine. PTherefore, we hypothesized that drugs targeting the molecular network intersection of amyloid and tau endophenotypes should have the greatest potential for success.”
Using their genetic mapping network, the researchers screened more than 1,600 FDA-approved drugs that could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. After identifying drugs that target both amyloid and tau, sildenafil was found to be the best candidate, as it was able to significantly improve cognition and memory in preclinical models. .
An increase in brain cell growth
Then, using an extensive claims database of over 7 million Americans, researchers examined the relationship between sildenafil and Alzheimer’s disease outcomes. For this, they compared sildenafil users to non-users. The results are significant: patients using sildenafil have a 69% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than non-sildenafil users after 6 years of follow-up. This generic viagra was even more effective than certain identified drugs used in clinical trials against Alzheimer’s, such as the hypertensive losartan and the antidiabetic metformin.
How to explain these results? By developing a model of brain cells derived from Alzheimer’s patients, researchers found that sildenafil increased brain cell growth and decreased tau protein hyperphosphorylation, a characteristic that leads to neurofibrillary tangles.
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