Could Viagra Help Prevent and Treat Alzheimer’s Disease?

The impotence pill Viagra may be a useful treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, say US researchers who have been studying its effects in the brain.
Tests in cells suggest the drug targets some of the proteins that accumulate in this type of dementia.

The Cleveland team also analysed a database of 7m patients and found men who were on the drug had a lower risk of Alzheimer’s.
However, the team stresses that much more research is needed to find out if the benefit extends to humans and if so, whether the drug would actually prevent the disease.
The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dementia across the world
In Canada about 850,000 people have dementia, but this is expected to rise to one million by 2021 and two million by 2051.

‘Greater risk’

One of these is Viagra, more commonly known as the impotence pill for erectile dysfunction.

In total they looked at records of 12,000 patients who were on Viagra and compared them with records of a similar number of patients of the same age and sex who were not on the drug.

They found that men taking Viagra were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who were not taking the drug.

However, the risk of Alzheimer’s was not affected in women on the drug.
Dr Yankner said: “Our results suggest that drugs designed to improve blood flow in the brain by targeting nitric oxide pathways may be useful for treating Alzheimer’s disease.”
The Alzheimer’s Society said that more research was needed to establish whether Viagra could be a useful treatment for the disease.

Dr Eric Karran, director of research at the charity, said: “As ever, it is important not to over-hype research results.
“However, these results have been replicated in mice and in humans, which means we need to take them seriously and look further into what this might mean for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

“We look forward to seeing the results of further research in this area.”
Prof David Allsop, a neuroscientist at the University of Lancaster, said: “One would hope that treatments based on nitric oxide could be effective against Alzheimer’s disease and this study provides some evidence that this is the case.”

But he cautioned: “This is a very small study and it is important to bear in mind that the results only show an association between Viagra use and reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease in men.

“Much more research is needed to show whether this effect is real and, if it is, whether it is due to a specific characteristic of the drug or a more general effect in the brain.”

Original Article

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/viagra-associated-reduced-risk-alzheimers-disease