Link found between the blue pill and Alzheimer's disease

More research is needed to explore the link between sildenafil and its seeming ability to lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease. — AFP

That popular blue pill commonly used for erectile dysfunction (ED) might also help treat Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers who have been using the drug to study the effects it has on the brain.

Although more studies are needed, researchers in Cleveland, United States, found that men who were taking the pill, known by the generic name of sildenafil, had a lower risk of Alzheimer’s.

This was following an analysis of a database of over 7.2 million patients spanning six years, BBC News reported on Dec 6 (2021).

The team also found that in lab studies, those who took higher-than-usual doses of the pill displayed an increase in brain cell growth and reduced protein accumulation, according to the outlet.

“Because our findings only establish an association between sildenafil use and reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, we are now planning a mechanistic trial and a phase II randomised clinical trial to test causality and confirm sildenafil’s clinical benefits for Alzheimer’s patients,” research leader Dr Cheng Feixiong reportedly told the Nature Aging journal.

Until that research is completed, University of Edinburgh Professor Tara Spires-Jones, an expert on brain research based in the United Kingdom, advises people to “not rush out to start taking sildenafil as a prevention for Alzheimer’s disease”.

University of Tasmania medical sciences lecturer Dr Jack Auty in Australia, similarly said this is hardly the first indication of a drug that could help with Alzheimer’s, though that has yet to pan out, according to the BBC.

To repurpose an already existing drug would be both a cheaper and overall more efficient path than developing an entirely new treatment for the disease.

Originally meant to treat the heart, sildenafil’s ability to relax blood vessels and subsequently improve blood flow in other parts of the body led to its use for ED, as well as pulmonary hypertension (for both men and women), according to the outlet.

Although the exact causes of Alzheimer’s – a type of dementia – are still being probed, it’s known that those who have it have abnormal protein deposits in their brains, the BBC reports. – By Jami Ganz/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service