Keeping tabs on pharma: Viagra-like drug shows promise in treating dementia

A new study has found that a drug closely related to sildenafil, commonly sold under the brand name Viagra, may be effective at treating people with vascular dementia.

Tadalafil is typically used to treat erectile disfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension as it increases blood flow. During a Phase II trial led by scientists at St George’s, University of London and St George’s Hospital, researchers tested whether tadalafil increases brain blood flow in older men and women who present a narrowing of the brain arteries, a condition that can cause strokes and vascular dementia.

The trial compared a single dose of tadalafil with a placebo, recording brain blood flow using an MRI-based method called arterial spin labelling. Although the trial results found no significant increase in blood flow, the results did show a trend for increased blood flow in participants aged over 70 in the white matter of the brain, where damage can cause vascular dementia.

The research team believes further investigation of tadalafil should be considered to explore its effectiveness in older age groups over a longer period of time.

Dr Atticus Hainsworth, lead investigator on the trial and reader in cerebrovascular disease at St George’s, University of London, said: “Viagra-like drugs merit further investigation for possible use in dementia. Repurposed drugs have the increased benefits of a shorter development time, a known safety profile and low cost, once their original patent has expired. We hope that further investigations will prove fruitful and provide new options for clinicians treating dementia.”

This is not the first time researchers show optimism for drugs in the sildenafil family to treat dementia. In 2021 a team of researchers based at the Cleveland Clinic in the US analyzed a database of more than seven million people and found that those taking sildenafil were less likely to develop Alzheimer's than those not taking the drug; additionally the research showed that in high doses sildenafil increased brain cell growth. 

Also in the news:

• Drugs have dangerously polluted the world’s rivers, posing a ‘global threat to human and environmental health’ according to a major new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• The World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is urging African countries to back the creation of a continent-wide drugs regulator to combat counterfeit and poor-quality drugs.
• Otsuka is partnering with Mindset Pharma to research the use of the psychedelic DMT as a treatment for depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders.

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