Nature Aging: Viagra may be used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease
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Nature Aging: Viagra may be used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
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Nature Aging: Viagra may be used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease, commonly known as ” senile dementia “, is the most common neurodegenerative disease, patients usually come in memory loss, diminished learning capacity of the main symptoms, and accompanied by adjustment disorder and mood The loss of athletic ability greatly affects the development of individuals, families and even society.
Currently, about 50 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.
With the average human life expectancy, increasing aging society, Alzheimer’s disease prevalence is rising, by 2050, Alzheimer’s disease patients will increase to more than 150 million, to society caused great and Increasing economic and disease burden.
The pathological feature of Alzheimer’s disease is the presence of β-amyloid (Aβ) and Tau amyloid deposits in the brain .
However, current Alzheimer’s disease drugs for Aβ and tau lack clinical benefit for patients.
December 6, 2021, Researchers from Cleveland Medical Center published the paper in Nature sub-Journal Nature Aging : Endophenotype-based in silico network medicine discovery combined with insurance record data mining identifies sildenafil as a candidate drug for Alzheimer’s disease.
The study found that sildenafil , a drug for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension and male erectile dysfunction , is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease .
The results of this study indicate that sildenafil is a new use of the old drug or an option for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Some recent studies have shown that the interaction between Aβ and tau protein has a greater impact on Alzheimer’s disease than the two themselves.
From this point of view, drugs that target the intersection of the molecular network of Aβ and tau protein phenotypes are likely to have the greatest potential for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
The research team used a computational method to integrate genetic data and other biological data to construct 13 disease ” endophenotypic modules ” that can show the biological characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease .
The research team mapped these modules into a large-scale network containing 351444 human protein interactions, and then calculated the network proximity scores of 1,600 FDA-approved drugs. Physical interaction with a variety of molecular targets.
The analysis results show that sildenafil is one of the drugs with the highest scores , and previous preclinical studies have shown that sildenafil can significantly improve cognition and memory, which suggests that the drug may affect Alzheimer’s disease.
Sildenafil , commonly known as ” Viagra “, was developed by Pfizer in the United States .
It was initially used in clinical studies as a 5-phosphodiesterase (PDE5) inhibitor for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases .
However, it did not achieve the researchers’ expectation of expanding blood vessels and alleviating cardiovascular diseases.
In April 1991, the clinical study of sildenafil officially failed.
However, the researchers found strangely that the volunteers participating in the study were unwilling to return the remaining drugs.
Under questioning, these volunteers said that the drug had improved their sexual life.
Afterwards, Pfizer researchers changed the direction of research and conducted research on the effect of sildenafil on the smooth muscle of the corpus cavernosum.
Sildenafil was approved by the FDA in 1998 for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction (ED) , which also made Pfizer famous.
Sildenafil
In this study, in order to verify the association between sildenafil and Alzheimer’s disease, the research team further analyzed the insurance claims data of 7.23 million people in the United States, and found that the prescription drug sildenafil was associated with Alzheimer’s after 6 years of follow-up.
It is related to a 69% reduction in the risk of diagnosis of Hymer’s disease .
Since sildenafil is mainly used to treat male erectile dysfunction, the gender factor is particularly important.
Therefore, the research team corrected the potential influencing factors of gender and age.
The adjusted data showed that the prescription of sildenafil was associated with a 73% reduction in the risk of diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease after 6 years of follow-up in men, and a 35% reduction in the risk for women.
It is related to a 62% reduction in risk for people aged 65-74, and a 51% reduction in risk for people aged 75 and over.
These results indicate that sildenafil is significantly related to the reduction in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in real-world patient data .
Further research team from Alzheimer’s patients using the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of human microglia and neurons in vitro experiments and found that sildenafil can be increased neurite outgrowth, reduced tau and The abnormal phosphorylation of protein supports the potential beneficial effect of sildenafil in reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Finally, the research team stated that the design of this study could not prove a causal relationship between taking a particular drug and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Therefore, randomized, controlled clinical trials for men and women are still needed to determine the effectiveness of sildenafil in this situation.
In addition, in September 2021, researchers from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom published a research paper titled: PDE5 Inhibition Suppresses Ventricular Arrhythmias by Reducing SR Ca2+ Content in the journal Circulation Research .
The study found that sildenafil (Viagra) can strongly suppress arrhythmias , but also reduce torsades tachycardia risk, and torsades tachycardia may cause sudden cardiac death.
In addition, the research team believes that sildenafil can also treat other types of arrhythmias.
These studies once again emphasized the power of the old drugs and new use, and also suggested that sildenafil may have more new applications in addition to the treatment of pulmonary hypertension and erectile dysfunction.
Special reminder : This article only introduces the latest scientific research progress, and does not constitute any purchase and use advice. Sildenafil is a prescription drug and the use of it should be prescribed by a doctor.
Paper link:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00138-z
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.318473
Nature Aging: Viagra may be used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
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