CLEVELAND, Ohio. — A recent study led by Cleveland Clinic has identified Viagra as a possible drug that could help treat and prevent Alzheimer's disease.
The study showed sildenafil, the generic name for erectile dysfunction medication Viagra and pulmonary hypertension medication Revatio are associated with a 69% decreased risk of Alzheimer's.
The research team used computational methods to screen and validate FDA-approved drugs as possible therapies for Alzheimer's and also looked at a database of over 7 million patients.
Results indicate the need for follow-up testing of the drug's efficacy in patients with the disease.
According to Cleveland Clinic, without the development of effective new treatments, the disease is set to affect 13.8 million Americans by 2050.
The clinic adds drug repurposing, which involves using an existing drug for new therapeutic purposes, offers a logical alternative to the often costly and time-consuming drug discovery process.
“This paper is an example of a growing area of research in precision medicine where big data is key to connecting the dots between existing drugs and a complex disease like Alzheimer’s,” said Jean Yuan, M.D., Ph.D., program director of Translational Bioinformatics and Drug Development at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funded this research. “This is one of many efforts we are supporting to find existing drugs or available safe compounds for other conditions that would be good candidates for Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials.”
Danielle Meadows at KMTV first reported this story.
