Anti Hypertensive Drugs May Help Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

The researchers identified seven out of 55 candidate drugs commonly prescribed for the treatment of hypertension which are capable of significantly preventing beta-amyloid production, recently identified as playing a key role in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis, particularly in respect to promotion of memory loss and dementia.

The researchers found that mice genetically determined to develop Alzheimer's disease significantly benefit from treatment with the anti-hypertensive agent Valsartan, which pharmacologically prevented beta-amyloid production in the brain of the Alzheimer' disease mice, even when delivered at doses 3-4 times lower than the minimal equivalent dose prescribed for the treatment of hypertension in humans. Other anti-hypertension drugs with beneficial results included Propranolol HCI, Carvedilol, Losartan, Nicardipine HCI, Amiloride HCI and Hydralazine HCI. The study was published in the November 2007 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"The use of these drugs for their potential anti-Alzheimer's disease role is still highly experimental, and at this stage we have no clinical data beyond phenomenological observation in humans,” said lead author Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience. "We need to complete preventive and therapeutic clinical trials in the near future if we are to identify certain anti-hypertensive drugs with anti beta-amyloid antioligomeric activities, which will need to be prescribed at dosages that do not interfere with blood pressure in normotensive Alzheimer's disease patients.”

The authors further suggest that a large number of geriatric patients currently under pharmacological treatment for high-blood pressure with certain anti-hypertensive drugs might reap the additional benefits of the drug's cognitive effects.


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