{"id":85918,"date":"2025-05-08T23:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T23:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85918\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T23:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T23:58:08","slug":"hiv-drugs-linked-to-lower-alzheimers-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85918\/","title":{"rendered":"HIV Drugs Linked to Lower Alzheimer\u2019s Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary: <\/strong>New research shows that HIV drugs called NRTIs may significantly reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Analyzing two large health databases, scientists found that patients on NRTIs had a 6% to 13% annual decrease in Alzheimer\u2019s risk.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike other HIV drugs, NRTIs block inflammasomes, immune system components implicated in Alzheimer\u2019s development. The researchers now call for clinical trials to test NRTIs \u2014 and a new, safer drug called K9 \u2014 to determine their potential in preventing Alzheimer\u2019s as cases continue to rise globally.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Reduced Risk:<\/strong> NRTIs were linked to a 6\u201313% annual reduction in Alzheimer\u2019s risk.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unique Effect:<\/strong> Only NRTIs, not other HIV drugs, showed this protective association.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Next Steps:<\/strong> Researchers call for clinical trials to test NRTIs and the new drug K9 for Alzheimer\u2019s prevention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong>University of Virginia<\/p>\n<p><strong>UVA Health scientists are calling for clinical trials testing the potential of HIV drugs called NRTIs to prevent\u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s disease\u00a0after discovering that patients taking the drugs are\u00a0substantially less likely to develop the memory-robbing condition.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The researchers, led by UVA\u2019s Jayakrishna Ambati, MD, previously identified a possible mechanism by which the drugs could prevent Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>  <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/nrti-HIV-Alzheimer-neuroscience.jpg\" alt=\"This shows pills.\"  \/> NRTIs, or nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, are used to prevent the HIV virus from replicating inside the body. Credit: Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p>That promising finding prompted them to analyze two of the nation\u2019s largest health insurance databases to evaluate Alzheimer\u2019s risk among patients prescribed the medications.<\/p>\n<p>In one, the risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s decreased\u00a06% every year\u00a0the patients were taking the drugs. In the other, the annual decrease was\u00a013%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s estimated that over 10 million people around the world develop Alzheimer\u2019s disease annually,\u201d said Ambati, founding director of UVA\u2019s Center for Advanced Vision Science and the DuPont Guerry III Professor in the University of Virginia School of Medicine\u2019s Department of Ophthalmology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur results suggest that taking these drugs could prevent approximately 1 million new cases of Alzheimer\u2019s disease<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>every year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preventing Alzheimer\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NRTIs, or nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, are used to prevent the HIV virus from replicating inside the body. But Ambati and his team previously determined that the drugs can also prevent the activation of inflammasomes, important agents of our immune system.<\/p>\n<p>These proteins have been implicated in the development of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, so Ambati and his colleagues wanted to see if patients taking the inflammasome-blocking drugs were less likely to develop Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>To do that, they reviewed 24 years of patient data contained in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration Database \u2013 made up heavily of men \u2013 and 14 years of data in the MarketScan database of commercially insured patients, which offers a broader representation of the population.<\/p>\n<p>They looked for patients who were at least 50 years old and were taking medications for either HIV or hepatitis B, another disease treated with NRTIs. They excluded patients with a previous Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>In total, the researchers identified more than 270,000 patients who met the study criteria and then analyzed how many went on to develop Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Even after adjusting for factors that might cloud the results, such as whether patients had pre-existing medical conditions, the researchers determined that the reduction in Alzheimer\u2019s risk among patients on NRTIs was \u201csignificant and substantial,\u201d they report in a new scientific paper.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers note that patients taking other types of HIV medications did not show the same reduction in Alzheimer\u2019s risk as those on NRTIs. Based on that, they say that NRTIs warrant clinical testing to determine their ability to ward off Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If successful, the benefits could be tremendous, as Alzheimer\u2019s rates are climbing dramatically. Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer\u2019s today, but that number is expected to climb to 13 million by 2050.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the estimated annual cost of care for Alzheimer\u2019s and other dementias could rise from $360 billion to almost $1 trillion, the Alzheimer\u2019s Association reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have also developed a new inflammasome-blocking drug called K9, which is a safer and more effective version of NRTIs,\u201d Ambati said. \u201cThis drug is already in clinical trials for other diseases, and we plan to also test K9 in Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Findings Published<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The researchers have published their findings in Alzheimer\u2019s &amp; Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n<p>The research team consisted of Joseph Magagnoli, Meenakshi Ambati, Tammy Cummings, Joseph Nguyen, Claire C. Thomas, Vidya L. Ambati, S. Scott Sutton, Bradley D. Gelfand and Jayakrishna Ambati. Jayakrishna Ambati is the co-founder of iVeena Holdings, iVeena Delivery Systems and Inflammasome Therapeutics; a full list of the authors\u2019 disclosures is included in the paper.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Funding: <\/strong>The research was supported by the UVA Strategic Investment Fund, grant 167; the National Institutes of Health, grants R01EY028027, R01EY029799, R01EY031039, R01AG078892, R01AG082108, R01EY028027, R01EY031039, R01AG078892, R01AG082108, R01EY032512 and R01DA054992; the DuPont Guerry III Professorship; and Mr. and Mrs. Eli W. Tullis.<\/p>\n<p>About this neuropharmacology and Alzheimer\u2019s disease research news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#650f01075c0425130c17020c0b0c044b000110\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Josh Barney<\/a><br \/><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/virginia.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">University of Virginia<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact: <\/strong>Josh Barney \u2013 University of Virginia<br \/><strong>Image: <\/strong>The image is credited to Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Original Research: <\/strong>The findings will appear in Alzheimer\u2019s &amp; Dementia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: New research shows that HIV drugs called NRTIs may significantly reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[231,215,105,19164,219,233,7206,220,41344,41345,16,15,41346],"class_list":{"0":"post-85918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimers-disease","9":"tag-brain-research","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-hiv","12":"tag-neurobiology","13":"tag-neurology","14":"tag-neuropharmacology","15":"tag-neuroscience","16":"tag-nrtis","17":"tag-nucleoside-reverse-transcriptase-inhibitors","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-university-of-virginia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114474929699993977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}