CLEVELAND — Research from the Cleveland Clinic shows sildenafil — also known as Viagra — could potentially be used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. 

Sildenafil is the main part of drugs that help treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. 

“Our findings provide further weight to re-purposing this existing FDA-approved drug as a novel treatment for Alzheimer’s, which is in great need of new therapies,” said Dr. Feixiong Cheng, who led the research. “We used artificial intelligence to integrate data across multiple domains which all indicated sildenafil’s potential against this devastating neurological disease.”

In the study, researchers analyzed millions of de-identified insurance claims from two independent patient databases. Cleveland Clinic said it revealed a 30-54% reduced prevalence in Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses among patients who took sildenafil compared to those who didn’t. 

Sildenafil showed to lower levels of what’s called neurotoxic tau proteins, which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It also found that neurons treated with sildenafil expressed genes related to “cell growth, improved brain function, reduced inflammation and other processes known to protect against the neural degeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Researchers hope this drug could help treat Alzheimer’s in the future. 

“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 Cheng. “We believe our findings provide the evidence needed for clinical trials to further examine the potential effectiveness of sildenafil in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.” 

More than 6 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, and the incidence rate is expected to triple by 2050, according to the Cleveland Clinic.