Viagra could be a drug (also) for Alzheimer's disease, the disease that takes away the memories of a lifetime
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousIl Viagra it could be (also) an anti-Alzheimer's drug. A study conducted by a research group led by the Genomic Medicine Institute of the Cleveland Clinic (USA) has in fact identified sildenafil (active ingredient of Viagra) as a promising drug against the terrible neurodegenerative disease that takes away the memories of a lifetime.
The history of sildenafil is one of the most unique in pharmaceutical research and, apparently, continues to amaze us: the molecule was in fact initially thought of as cardiac therapy. We are in the early 90s and that Pfizer patent really made history.
In fact, the experimentation, which normally must be conducted with the aim of verifying the initial pharmaceutical indication (in this case against cardiovascular disorders), if it did not seem to be so effective for the heart, showed a "curious side effect", only on men.
In fact, the active ingredient of the drug, which had to dilate the blood vessels of the heart by blocking a protein called PDE-5, had a dilating effect of the vessels, but not those of the heart, but those of the penis, which then "suffered" unexpected erections.
The data was so overwhelming that Pfizer was able to change the indication of the drug on the run, which was then approved by the FDA (the US authority that regulates the marketing of drugs) for erectile dysfunction under the name of Viagra. , the infamous "blue pill". The same active ingredient was later approved for pulmonary hypertension under the name of Revatio.
Unfortunately, a more recent experimentation on pregnant women suffering from placental insufficiency was stopped due to 11 spontaneous abortions recorded following the administration of the drug.
Read also: Stop experimenting with viagra on pregnant women: 11 fetuses died
It does not end here
A new study has indeed conducted a computational methodology to screen and validate FDA-approved drugs as potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease. In particular, through a large-scale analysis of a database of over 7 million patients, the scientists verified that sildenafil is associated with a 69% reduction in the incidence of the disease, indicating the need for follow-up clinical testing of drug efficacy in patients.
Terrible neurodegenerative disease involves the accumulation of amyloid beta protein and tau protein in the brain which causes amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles, two hallmarks of the process-induced brain-related changes that currently cannot be stopped, as specific treatments do not exist despite many attempts, which have failed in the last decade.
The disease, which leads more or less rapidly to a irreversible and severe demenza, is a plague that afflicts the whole world, and therefore requires the rapid development of prevention and treatment strategies. Drug reuse - the use of an existing drug for new therapeutic purposes - offers a practical alternative to the traditional, costly and time-consuming process of drug discovery.
This paper is an example of a growing research area in precision medicine where i big data are the key to connecting the dots between existing drugs and a disease as complex as Alzheimer's - explains Jean Yuan, program director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funded this research - This is one of the many efforts we are advocating to find existing medications or safe compounds available for other conditions that could prove to be good candidates for Alzheimer's disease clinical trials
©Cleveland Clinic
But why think about sildenafil?
Using an extensive genetic mapping network, the researchers integrated genetic and other biological data to determine which of the more than 1.600 FDA-approved drugs could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease, pinpointing those that target both amyloid and tau. This is because previous studies had shown that the interaction between amyloid and tau contributed most to the development of the terrible disease.
The team then used a large database of data on over 7 million people in the United States to examine the relationship between sildenafil and Alzheimer's disease outcomes by comparing users with non-users. The analysis included patients using comparator drugs who were in an active Alzheimer's clinical trial (losartan or metformin) or who had not yet been reported as disease-relevant (diltiazem or glimepiride).
Sildenafil - explains Feixiong Cheng, co-author of the work - which has shown to significantly improve cognition and memory in preclinical models, presented itself as the best drug candidate
The team found that sildenafil users had the 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease compared to non-users, after 6 years of follow-up. Specifically, sildenafil had a 55% reduction in disease risk compared to losartan, 63% compared to metformin, 65% compared to diltiazem, and 64% compared to glimepiride.
The use of sildenafil has been shown to be particularly effective in reducing this risk in individuals with coronary heart disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes, all of which are comorbidities significantly associated in fact with disease risk.
To further explore the effect of sildenafil on Alzheimer's disease, the researchers developed a brain cell model derived from the Alzheimer's patient using stem cells, finding that sildenafil increases brain cell growth and decreases hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins (a hallmark leading to neurofibrillary tangles), offering biological insights into how the molecule might affect disease-related brain changes.
We will therefore go directly to the phase II of the clinical trial, the one where the aim is to verify the efficacy of the drug on a small scale.
The work was published in Nature Aging.
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Fonti: Cleveland Clinic / Nature Aging
Read also:
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