Could Viagra lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease!
A new study is looking into whether Viagra can help with Alzheimer's disease.
- Researchers recently concluded that Viagra (sildenafil) may have an effect on Alzheimer's disease based on genetic and other biological data.
- When they analyzed prescription insurance claims, they discovered that sildenafil scrips were associated with a 69 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's in claimants.
- Laboratory tests on nerve cells from Alzheimer's patients supported the idea that sildenafil could be used to treat the disease.
- However, the researchers emphasize that only clinical trials can provide conclusive evidence that sildenafil is an effective Alzheimer's treatment.
Doctors prescribe sildenafil — better known by its brand name, Viagra — to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs).
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What is Viagra?
Viagra is an abbreviation of the word "viagras" and is a brand name for sildenafil citrate. Sildenafil citrate is a chemical analogue of the naturally occurring amino acid L-arginine, with vasodilation properties; it works by inhibiting phosphodiesterase type 5 walmart viagra 100mg price.
- Viagra was originally released in 1998 by Pfizer and has since become one of the most widely prescribed drugs in history.
The active ingredient in Viagra is Sildenafil Citrate. In Pfizer's original patent application, Sildenafil was described as a PDE5 inhibitor with possible use as an antihypertensive agent.There were no serious side effects reported during clinical trials of Viagra for men on humans; however, there were reports of mild to moderate headaches, flushing, indigestion and temporary visual disturbances such as blue tinge to vision.
Sildenafil is not approved by the FDA for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). Before an ED drug can be approved by the FDA, it must be shown to be effective and well-tolerated in a clinical trial. The manufacturer can claim that their drug is "indicated" or "approved" for a particular use, but they are not required to prove that it works or has any effect in order to do so.
In 1996, Pfizer sought FDA approval to market Viagra for treating the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The FDA granted the company a de novo review, which is a type of preliminary review intended to give the applicant an opportunity to revise their patent application. After receiving information from Pfizer and other sources about the potential negative side effects of Viagra, the FDA decided to require Pfizer to conduct phase 3 clinical trials in order for them to claim that Viagra was effective and safe for treating ED.
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However, several studies in mice and a few pilot studies in humans have suggested that sildenafil could be used to treat alzheimer s society.
A new study has provided biological and population-based evidence to support the idea that the drug may aid in the prevention and treatment of the disease.
"Developing drugs for diseases that attack the brain, such as Alzheimer's, is a costly process that can take many years," said Dr. Susan Kohlhaas, Ph.D., director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK in the United Kingdom.
"Being able to repurpose a drug that is already licensed for another health condition could help speed up the drug discovery process and bring life-changing dementia treatments to patients sooner," she said.
The study was led by the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH, and it was published in Nature AgingTrusted Source.
The death of brain cells causes progressive memory loss and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia.
Scientists predict that due to our aging population, 13.8 million people in the United States alone will have Alzheimer's disease by 2050.
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Alzheimer's Disease Characteristics
The primary distinguishing features
Plaques of a protein called beta-amyloid and fibrous tangles of tau, another protein, are believed to be the source of the disease in the brain.
Clinical trials of drugs and vaccines targeting the two proteins, on the other hand, have yielded disappointing results.
Alzheimer's disease is caused by a complex interplay of genes and environmental factors.
The researchers used a computational model that incorporates data about the disease's genetics as well as the involved networks of metabolic pathways to predict which existing drugs could provide new treatments.
They concentrated on protein interactions in networks that play a role in the formation of both beta-amyloid and tau.
The researchers then developed "network proximity measures" for over 1,600 approved drugs based on how closely they interact with these Alzheimer's-related networks.
This enabled the researchers to narrow the field down to 66 drugs that could potentially treat the disease. Taking into account other factors, such as promising results from animal models of Alzheimer's disease, sildenafil emerged as the most promising candidate.
The researchers conducted additional research by analyzing prescription insurance claims from 7.23 million people in the United States.
They discovered that claimants who were prescribed sildenafil had a 69 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease over the next 6 years.
After controlling for other factors that influence Alzheimer's risk, such as gender, ethnicity, and other medical conditions, the association remained statistically significant. Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and mild cognitive impairment were among the conditions identified.
Finally, the researchers tested sildenafil in the lab on nerve cells derived from Alzheimer's patients to confirm that it can affect the underlying mechanism of the disease.
They discovered that sildenafil stimulated the formation of new nerve projections and reduced tau accumulation in the cells.
Tau is frequently used as a biomarker by researchers to track the progression of disease in both animal models and humans.
What about cause and effect?
The authors emphasize that their study design cannot demonstrate a causal relationship between the use of a specific drug and the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
According to them, there could be hidden confounding factors that influence not only Alzheimer's risk but also the likelihood of sildenafil use.
Education level and socioeconomic status are two potential confounding factors that the insurance data did not account for.
However, there was no significant difference in total annual prescription costs between sildenafil users and nonusers, implying that the two groups were not economically different.
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The authors believe their lab results back up their conclusion that sildenafil could be used as a treatment.
"We don't think socioeconomic status will drive our findings," senior author Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., told MNT. "We further validated our findings in [Alzheimer's] patient-derived [nerve cell] models as well."
The authors also point out that the insurance data did not include genetic information, such as whether claimants had a specific version of the apolipoprotein E gene, which increases the risk of Alzheimer's and affects patients' responses to treatment.
Furthermore, because healthcare professionals typically prescribe sildenafil to men, the study was unable to identify any potential benefits in females in terms of Alzheimer's risk.
- "While the researchers looked at the effect of sildenafil on females, there isn't enough information to draw accurate conclusions about its effect in females, who account for the majority of Alzheimer's cases worldwide," Dr. Kohlhaas said.
- "Most importantly, this study does not prove that sildenafil reduces dementia risk or that it slows or stops the disease," she said.
- "The only way to test this would be in a large-scale clinical trial comparing the effects of sildenafil to the standard of care."
Finally, the authors state:
"Taken together, the association between sildenafil usage and decreased incidence of [Alzheimer's disease] does not establish causality or direction, and our findings warrant rigorous clinical trial testing of the treatment efficacy of sildenafil in patients with [Alzheimer's disease], including both sexes and controlled by placebo."
"In the next step, we plan a mechanistic trial and a biomarker-guided phase 2 trial to further validate [the] clinical benefit of sildenafil in early [Alzheimer's disease] patients," Dr. Cheng told MNT.
SOURCE : Yasoquiz
