Sildenafil, which is universally known as Viagra or blue pill and used for erectile dysfunction, could be able to significantly reduce the disease Alzheimer up to 69%. The news, which opens another breach for research, is contained in the study published in Nature Aging.
Viagra, what the study says
To fight the disease and find a definitive cure, some researchers at the Cleveland Hospital have analyzed over 1,600 drugs already on the market whose active ingredients interact with the molecular targets of Alzheimer’s: well, sildenafil has been recognized as one of the most effective mechanisms of a disease that affects millions of people around the world (one million in Italy alone). The triggers of the disease are many but central is the disease role of the amyloid protein in the brain. As is well known, there is currently no effective cure for Alzheimer’s but the result of this new study ignites hope.
«In fact, people who took the drug for six years had almost 70% less risk of Alzheimer’s than those who did not take it. But beware: the study design cannot demonstrate a direct relationship between drug use and Alzheimer’s risk»Said a Republic the prof. Federica Agosta, associate of Neurology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and head of the Neuroimaging unit for neurodegenerative diseases at the San Raffaele Hospital Irccs. In practice, it has been seen that in healthy people who took Viagra for erectile dysfunction causes, 69% never developed this disease but beware, it is still very early to be able to say that there is a causal relationship- effect. “This analysis paves the way for new, more in-depth research», Adds the expert.
On the possible role of sildenafil in relation to dementia, other research in vitro and on animal models (but never on humans) had already focused, suggesting that this drug “can exert a specific protective effect against Alzheimer’s by suppressing the action of the beta-secretase enzyme that participates in the formation of beta-amyloid fragments that cause Alzheimer’s. Sildenafil would then act on the mechanisms that precede the formation of amyloid plaqueSays the neurologist.
Current treatments for the disease
To date, unfortunately, the disease can only be fought with “inhibitors of cholinesterase (donepezil and rivastigmine) and memantine, molecules that have limited clinical actionWhich limits the disease only for a period of six months. That is why sufferers and their loved ones expect innovative therapies to win against this monster. An important helping hand can come from antibodies monoclonal, well known today because they are active in the fight against Covid-19. Excellent news also arrives on the vaccine front: in Boston there will be the first experimentation of a nasal vaccine against Alzheimer’s “and now comes the news about sildenafil that could encourage the search for the development of new therapies based on this active ingredient».
How Viagra might work
Scholars claim that Viagra by increasing the intake of blood to the brain, would promote neurogenesis, which is the process of forming new nerve cells and could “be useful for dementias in general», Adds the neurologist, who explains how in some patients an increased blood flow to the brain has been observed, although it does not demonstrate clinical efficacy. “No conclusions can be drawn on clinical efficacy and disease progression».
What are the weak points
Being an “association” study, it must be said that sildenafil is a contraindicated drug in subjects suffering from cardiovascular diseases for which this type of treatment would be impossible but it is precisely those who are most predisposed to the onset of illness. Viagra, therefore, would be the prerogative of those who do not have these risk factors, clearly restricting the field of use. In any case, in the future it will still be able to act as a preventive and non-curative drug, two very different aspects, without prejudice to the critical issues for patients suffering from heart and blood pressure high. The disease currently affects one million people in Italy and hundreds of millions around the world.