(Source: Global Science)
Alzheimer's disease (AD), commonly known as Alzheimer's disease, is an age-related progressive cognitive disorder. At present, there are about 10 million Alzheimer's disease patients in China, ranking first in the world, and 1.8 million new AD patients occur every year, but only 14% of the patients are correctly diagnosed.
These two seemingly unrelated things were linked by a study: Cheng Feixiong's team at Cleveland Medical Center in the United States recently published an article in the journal Nature Aging, showing that people who took sildenafil had a 69% lower risk of Developing Alzheimer's disease compared with non-users.
(Source: natural aging)
Using a computational method, the researchers integrated genetic and other biological data to construct 13 disease "endophenotyping modules" that could represent the biological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease.
They plotted the modules into a large network containing 351444 human protein interactions, and then calculated network proximity scores for more than 1,600 FDA-approved drugs, with higher scores indicating that the drug could physically interact with multiple molecular targets in the Alzheimer's disease-related modules.
The data suggest that sildenafil is one of the highest-scoring drugs, suggesting that it may affect Alzheimer's disease.
(Source: Figureworm Creative)
Sildenafil was developed by Pfizer in 1986 and was originally used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, but after the drug entered clinical research, it was found that the therapeutic effect on cardiovascular disease did not achieve the desired goal.
As a cardiovascular drug, the performance of sildenafil is undoubtedly disappointing. In April 1991, the clinical study of sildenafil officially failed.
Curiously, when the researchers asked the volunteers for the remaining drugs, they were reluctant to return them. After repeated questioning, the researchers found that after taking high doses of sildenafil, the volunteers occasionally felt indigestion, back and leg pain, and erect penises.
As a result, research on sildenafil opened the door to a new world, and Pfizer immediately reversed its research direction and began to prepare clinical trials for erectile dysfunction.
Eventually, sildenafil was marketed as the first oral phosphodiesterase inhibitor to treat erectile dysfunction through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998, and Pfizer received more than $1 billion in sales in its first year of marketing.
In the treatment of erectile dysfunction, sildenafil is undoubtedly very outstanding, so that now many health care products under the banner of "aphrodisiac" are actually privately added sildenafil.
(For example, many medicinal liquors that claim to be aphrodisiacs are illegally added sildenafil.)
/Image Source: Figureworm Creative)
Today, this "old" drug has a new effect, or can it reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease?
To verify, the researchers then analyzed data on health insurance claims for 7.23 million people in the United States and found that prescribing the drug sildenafil was associated with a 69 percent lower risk of alzheimer's disease diagnosis after 6 years of follow-up.
Since sildenafil is mainly used to treat erectile dysfunction in men, the gender factor is particularly important, and the researchers found that after correcting for the potential influencing factors of sex, race, and age:
Prescribing sildenafil was associated with a 73% lower risk of Alzheimer's disease diagnosis after 6 years of follow-up in men and a 35% lower risk for women. It was associated with a 62% lower risk for people aged 65-74 and a 51% lower risk for people aged 75 and older.
In addition, the researchers constructed a model of brain neurons using induced pluripotent stem cells from Alzheimer's patients and found that sildenafil can promote brain cell growth and reduce superphosphorylation of tau proteins, thereby mechanically supporting its potentially beneficial role in Alzheimer's disease.
However, the researchers also say their study design has not been able to prove a causal relationship between taking a particular drug and the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, randomized, controlled clinical trials for men and women are still needed to determine the efficacy of sildenafil in this case.
(Source: 123RF)
From suggestive theoretical studies to clinical confirmation, there is still a long way to go between sildenafil and Alzheimer's disease.
According to the "World Alzheimer's Disease 2018 Report", there are currently at least 50 million dementia patients worldwide (including vascular dementia, frontotemporal lobe dementia, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease dementia, Alzheimer's disease, etc.), of which about 60%-70% are Alzheimer's disease patients.
Alzheimer's disease is currently incurable, there are no drugs that can reverse cognitive deficits, and no single test can predict Alzheimer's disease.
In the early stages of the disease, people with Alzheimer's disease may only have a memory loss, but as the disease progresses, they will gradually develop mental abnormalities, personality changes, behavioral disorders, and even difficulty swallowing, bedridden, and eventually die from complications such as lung and urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers, and symptoms of systemic failure.
Therefore, Alzheimer's disease not only brings great pain to patients, but also a great burden on the whole family. If future clinical studies show that sildenafil can indeed reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, it will benefit millions of families.
But then again, the causal relationship between sildenafil and Alzheimer's disease has not yet been confirmed, and we should not abuse the small blue pill at will, otherwise it may lead to priapism, which in turn will lead to serious erectile dysfunction, penile cavernosity necrosis, fibrosis and penile deformities and other serious consequences.
Even if there is a problem in that regard, it is necessary to seek medical treatment first, and then carry out relevant treatment under the professional diagnosis of the doctor.
(If there is a problem, please seek medical treatment in time, do not delay treatment because of shame / Source: Figureworm Creative)
Edit: Dr. Spring Rain
bibliography:
ZHANG Mengran. Sildenafil into the treatment of Alzheimer's disease "high score player"[N]. Science and Technology Daily, 2021-12-08(004).
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