Findings show a 69% reduced likelihood of developing the disease — ScienceDaily

A new Cleveland Clinic-led study has identified sildenafil — an FDA-approved therapy for erectile dysfunction (Viagra) and pulmonary hypertension (Ravatio) — as a promising drug candidate to help prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease.

According to findings published in Nature Aging, the research team, led by Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute, used computational methodology to screen and validate FDA-approved drugs as potential therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. Through a large-scale analysis of a database of more than 7 million patients, they determined that sildenafil is associated with 69% reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, indicating the need for follow-up clinical trial testing of the drug’s efficacy in patients with the disease.

“Recent studies show that the interplay between amyloid and tau is a greater contributor to Alzheimer’s…

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