Viagra a potential drug against Alzheimer’s?

By analyzing the drugs already authorized, scientists at the Cleveland Clinic, an academic medical center based in the city of the same name (Ohio, United States), found that patients treated with Viagra (or sildenafil) and Ravatio, prescribed forhypertension, have a 69% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than others.

It is not uncommon for an already authorized drug to be tested for effectiveness against another disease. ” Sildenafil, which has already been shown to significantly improve cognition and memory in preclinical models, presents itself as the best candidate », Explains Feixiong Cheng, head of the study published in Nature Aging.

Little blue pills, big neurons

To verify these statistical observations, scientists developed a model from stem cells brain of patients who reproduce Alzheimer’s disease in vitro. These experiments showed that Viagra increases the growth of brain cells and decreases the hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins. Hyperphosphorylation is a chemical modification that allows the formation of tangles tau proteins, also called neurofilaments, inside neurons.

This preliminary experience is obviously not enough to say that Viagra can prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease. Further experiments are needed to confirm this track. ” Because our results only establish an association between the use of sildenafil and a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s, we now plan a mechanistic trial and a clinical test phase II to test causality and confirm the benefit of sildenafil in Alzheimer’s patients ”Concludes Dr. Cheng.