SRINAGAR: The erectile dysfunction medication Viagra has emerged as a potential contender in the decades-long search for Alzheimer’s disease treatments. Particularly intriguing was the finding that men with more frequent prescriptions exhibited a 44 per cent reduced risk of Alzheimer’s.
“We can’t say that the drugs are responsible, but this does give us food for thought on how we move into the future,” the British newspaper, The Guardian quoted lead author Dr Ruth Brauer from University College London saying. “We now need a proper clinical trial to look at the effects of these drugs on Alzheimer’s in women as well as men.”
The study, published in world famed journal Neurology, encompassing over 260,000 men with erectile dysfunction but no cognitive impairments, tracked their medication usage, primarily PDE5 inhibitors like sildenafil (marketed as Viagra), avanafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil, over an average span of five years to monitor Alzheimer’s incidence.
While the results are intriguing, experts caution against drawing definitive conclusions, highlighting the study’s observational nature and the inability to account for variables like physical activity and sexual health, which could influence both drug usage and Alzheimer’s risk.
Nevertheless, the potential link between PDE5 inhibitors and Alzheimer’s prevention warrants further investigation, with calls for clinical trials involving diverse populations to validate these findings. PDE5 inhibitors help blood vessels relax, which makes it easier for blood to move around the body. Research with animals suggests that this could improve blood flow to the brain, potentially guarding against Alzheimer’s disease. Other studies have found that these inhibitors increase levels of a substance called cGMP, which might also safeguard brain cells.
The prospect of repurposing existing drugs for dementia prevention offers a promising approach, according to Dr Ivan Koychev from the University of Oxford.
However, challenges lie ahead, including the difficulty of conducting blinded placebo-controlled trials due to the drugs’ noticeable effects.
Despite differing opinions among researchers, the notion of a drug like sildenafil, typically used on an as-needed basis, altering the trajectory of a chronic neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s raises questions about its plausibility and mechanism of action.
The quest for effective Alzheimer’s treatments continues, with Viagra unexpectedly entering the spotlight as a potential candidate.
“This study does not conclusively prove that erectile dysfunction drugs reduce Alzheimer’s risk but provide good evidence that this type of drug is worth further study in future,” BBC quoted Prof Tara Spires-Jones, from the University of Edinburgh, and president of the British Neuroscience Association as saying.
Dr Francesco Tamagnini, neurophysiologist at the University of Reading, said it was “a great study”, but more hard evidence on how the drug affected the brain was needed.
“It could be that it exerts a therapeutic effect directly affecting neurons (if the drug is able to cross the blood-brain barrier) and/or by increasing blood flow, but both these hypotheses need to be tested,” he said.
This is not the first time that the pills required to manage ED are linked to a positive impact on key brain cells. Earlier studies were contradictory in findings. While some suggested a huge impact, in contrast, some said it lacks an impact. The new study, however, will push science for extensive studies to walk the talk to the next level.
