The journal Nature Aging has published a new study conducted by researchers at the Institute of Genomic Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic (United States) which concludes that people who receive treatment with sildenafil either to treat erectile dysfunction or pulmonary hypertension have a 69% reduction in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease.

Thus, it is revealed that Viagra and Revatio could serve as preventive methods for this neurodegenerative disease. This is the reason why the authors of the study are now requesting to test the efficacy in patients with neurodegenerative pathologies.

In this regard, they point out that the use of this compound can substantially reduce the number of toxic proteins - beta-amyloid and tau - that trigger dementia. In fact, it has been shown that the drug can increase the growth of brain cells and reduce certain pathological signs of the disease.

Sildenafil may have neuroprotective effects and reduce the levels of toxic tau proteins," he argued," said project leader Dr. Feixiong Cheng. However, the research does not point to the use of this drug as a daily preventive treatment, but rather as an inspiration to create other drugs.

The study has been conducted over six years using insurance data from 7.2 million Americans. According to Feixiong Cheng, the research was initiated to establish a new methodology for detecting pre-existing drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00138-z