Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, affects about 6 million people in the United States. So far, only one medicine has been approved to treat a possible underlying cause of Alzheimer’s disease directly in the brain, but there are other alternatives for treating symptoms.
Finding novel treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, which the Alzheimer’s Association has labeled a “silent epidemic” among Black adults, may depend on how individuals from different ethnic groups react to the same drug.
Telmisartan, a medication currently prescribed for people with high blood pressure, is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, specifically in Black patients over the age of 60, according to a Cleveland Clinic-led study that was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. The insurance data of millions of adults over the age of 60 did not indicate the same possible effect for white patients.
Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., of the Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine Institute, says that the results suggest that patients from minority groups should be given top priority in future clinical trials to find or strengthen these links.
The most prevalent type of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, affects more than 6 million people in the United States. Alzheimer’s disease affects black adults over 60 at a 1.5–2 times higher rate than that of white people. Although there are alternative treatments for symptoms, there is only one medication available that has been approved so far to treat a possible underlying brain condition associated with Alzheimer’s.
According to Dr. Cheng, taking into account racial differences in pharmacological responses has the potential to significantly enhance patient treatment.
“Identifying these candidate drugs can also reveal more information about the disease itself through referencing the medicine’s targets.”
In order to find new targets and repurposed drugs for Alzheimer’s treatment, Dr. Cheng’s team is employing cutting-edge research methods, such as artificial intelligence and de-identified data from Cleveland Clinic’s extensive electronic medical record systems. Doctoral students Pengyue Zhang of the Indiana University School of Medicine and Yuan Hou of Dr. Cheng’s group are the study’s other co-first authors.
Dr. Cheng’s lab at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic uses human genome sequencing data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project, which is a nationwide network that aims to find the genetic causes of Alzheimer’s disease and good drug targets for it.
For this study, researchers analyzed data from more than 5 million patients in the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project using a cutting-edge retrospective cohort design methodology. They found that telmisartan was strongly linked to a lower rate of Alzheimer’s in Black people.
Telmisartan is a member of a class of medications that lower high blood pressure by blocking the hormone angiotensin II, which constricts blood vessels. Lisinopril, a blood pressure medicine that treats high blood pressure differently, did not exhibit the same potential advantages as telmisartan, indicating that angiotensin II blockers may be useful in preventing or treating Alzheimer’s disease in African-American patients.
The comorbidities already linked to Alzheimer’s, such as hypertension, diabetes, and chronic renal disease, are more prevalent in black patients.
Researchers are currently investigating if the standard medical care for these problems may also be linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease development when using telmisartan.
Source: 10.1002/alz.12819