Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

14 PATIENT SAFETY & OUTCOMES Cleveland Clinic research suggests Viagra could be used as Alzheimer's treatment By Erica Carbajal C leveland Clinic researchers found sildenafil, which goes by the name brand Viagra, is associated with a 69 percent reduced likelihood of developing Alzheimer's, according to findings published Dec. 6 in Nature Aging. The research team used a large gene-mapping network to integrate genetic and other data to evaluate which of over 1,600 FDA-approved drugs may be an effective treatment for the disease. They focused on drugs that target both beta amyloid and tau proteins, two hallmarks of Alzheimer's. "Sildenafil, which has been shown to significantly improve cognition and memory in preclinical models, pre- sented as the best drug candidate," said Feixiong Cheng, PhD, lead study author and researcher at Cleveland Clinic's Genomic Medicine Institute. Using a large database of claims from more than 7 million people, they then analyzed the relationship between sildenafil and Alzheimer's disease by comparing those who used the drug to those who did not. Sildenafil users were 69 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's than non-users after six years of follow-up, findings showed. Using stem cells, the team also developed an Alzheimer's patient-de- rived brain cell model and found the drug increased brain cell growth and targeted tau proteins. Researchers emphasized their findings did not establish a causal relationship between sildenafil and Alzheimer's and that randomized clinical trials are needed to better un- derstand sildenafil's potential clinical benefits for the disease. n Experimental treatment may have cured Type 1 diabetes for first time By Erica Carbajal I n a Vertex Pharmaceuticals clinical trial, an experimental treatment may have cured Type 1 diabetes for the first time in a 64-year-old patient, The New York Times reported Nov. 27. The treatment involves an infusion of cells, grown from stem cells that pro- duce islet cells — insulin-producing cells found throughout the pancreas. Ohio resident Brian Shelton became the first person to receive the treat- ment on June 29 as part of the trial. His body now automatically reg- ulates its insulin and blood sugar levels, the Times reported. "It's a whole new life," Mr. Shelton told the news outlet. "It's like a miracle." The result has not yet been pub- lished in a peer-reviewed journal and the trial will continue for five years. It includes 17 participants with severe Type 1 diabetes and the treatment is not intended for Type 2 diabetes. Several diabetes experts expressed cautious optimism, telling the Times further research is needed to deter- mine whether there are any adverse effects and whether the treatment would need to be repeated. Still, "It is a remarkable result," said Peter Butler, MD, a diabetes expert at Los Angeles-based UCLA. "To be able to reverse diabetes by giving them back the cells they are missing is comparable to the miracle when insulin was first available 100 years ago," Dr. Butler told the Times. Doug Melton, PhD, a biologist at Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University, led the treatment's devel- opment over two decades. n COVID-19 virus leaves some with 'autoantibodies' that attack healthy tissues, study suggests By Erica Carbajal M onths after recovering from COVID-19, some people may develop "autoanti- bodies," or antibodies that attack healthy organs and tissues, according to findings published Dec. 30 in the Journal of Translational Medicine. e study — conducted by researchers from Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai before COVID-19 vaccines were available — involved 177 healthcare workers with a previously con- firmed COVID-19 infection. Researchers compared blood samples from this cohort to those taken from a healthy control group of 53 people before the pandemic. All of the participants with a history of COVID-19, including those who had mild symptoms or no symptoms, had elevated levels of self-attacking autoantibodies up to six months aer they had fully recovered, the findings showed. "We found signals of autoantibody activity that are usually linked to chronic inflammation and injury involving specific organ systems and tissues such as the joints, skin and nervous system," said Susan Cheng, MD, study co-author and director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging at Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute. Overall, researchers observed a higher number of elevated autoantibodies in men compared to women. Researchers said they hope to expand the study to determine whether certain types of autoantibodies are persistent in people with long COVID-19 and whether autoantibodies are generated at similar levels among people with breakthrough infections. n

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