The FDA-approved medicine, which is administered for erectile dysfunction, can soon be part of the therapy to decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers in the United States, have analysed medical insurance data and carried out a laboratory investigation of sildenafil’s genetic and neurological effects. Sildenafil is a drug which is popularly sold under the brand name Viagra.
The researchers in the United States validated the potential of the medication in maintaining critical proteins in nerve cells from getting into a deadly mess.
Recent studies carried out have again and again shown that enzyme blockers known as phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors are not only able to increase blood flow in the penis but can also prevent neurodegeneration which leads to dementia.
The potential of the enzyme blockers should not be surprising since the PDEs are known to remain involved in nerve signalling pathways which influence neuroplasticity.
As per earlier investigations on animal models, the PDE inhibitor sildenafil decreases the excessive phosphorylation of ‘tau’ proteins in nerve cells which leads them to form toxic tangles and helps improve cognitive health and memory.
However, some studies were not able to register an effect on the population level at all.
And though, the drugs do not have an effect on a neurological level, the mechanism involved in the process is still not fully understood.
Cell cultures of neurons used by researchers to study Viagra’s effect
In the United States, the researchers used cell cultures of neurons, which were created using stem cells donated by patients with Alzheimer’s, to sketch the metabolic and genetic activity behind the therapeutic effects of sildenafil.
After five days of treatment, significantly lower levels of tau proteins were produced by the laboratory-grown neurons in which phosphorus in high concentration was added, which confirmed sildenafil’s potential to protect brain cells.
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When the researchers went through the messages produced by the DNA of the cells, they found multiple changes in the expression of genes, many of which involved the communication breakdown between nerves, inflammation and guidance of nerve cell structures.
Even though additional studies will be required to understand how these subtle influences are involved in the pathology behind Alzheimer’s, the researchers have understood that the main gene families affected by sildenafil gave a solid foundation for understanding why this works and why Alzheimer’s is developed in some brains in the first place.
“After integrating this large amount of data computationally, it is rewarding to see sildenafil’s effects in human neurons and real-world patient outcomes,” said Cleveland Clinic biomedical informatician and co-first author Feixiong Cheng, reported Science Alert.