PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

HIV drugs offer ‘substantial’ Alzheimer’s protection, new research indicates

2025-05-08
(Press-News.org)

UVA Health scientists are calling for clinical trials testing the potential of HIV drugs called NRTIs to prevent Alzheimer’s disease after discovering that patients taking the drugs are substantially less likely to develop the memory-robbing condition.

The researchers, led by UVA’s Jayakrishna Ambati, MD, previously identified a possible mechanism by which the drugs could prevent Alzheimer’s. That promising finding prompted them to analyze two of the nation’s largest health insurance databases to evaluate Alzheimer’s risk among patients prescribed the medications. In one, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s decreased 6% every year the patients were taking the drugs. In the other, the annual decrease was 13%.

“It’s estimated that over 10 million people around the world develop Alzheimer’s disease annually,” said Ambati, founding director of UVA’s Center for Advanced Vision Science and the DuPont Guerry III Professor in the University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology. “Our results suggest that taking these drugs could prevent approximately 1 million new cases of Alzheimer’s disease every year.”

Preventing Alzheimer’s

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. These proteins have been implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, so Ambati and his colleagues wanted to see if patients taking the inflammasome-blocking drugs were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

To do that, they reviewed 24 years of patient data contained in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration Database – made up heavily of men – and 14 years of data in the MarketScan database of commercially insured patients, which offers a broader representation of the population. 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’s diagnosis.

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’s. 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’s risk among patients on NRTIs was “significant and substantial,” they report in a new scientific paper.

The researchers note that patients taking other types of HIV medications did not show the same reduction in Alzheimer’s risk as those on NRTIs. Based on that, they say that NRTIs warrant clinical testing to determine their ability to ward off Alzheimer’s. 

If successful, the benefits could be tremendous, as Alzheimer’s rates are climbing dramatically. Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s today, but that number is expected to climb to 13 million by 2050. Further, the estimated annual cost of care for Alzheimer’s and other dementias could rise from $360 billion to almost $1 trillion, the Alzheimer’s Association reports.

“We have also developed a new inflammasome-blocking drug called K9, which is a safer and more effective version of NRTIs,” Ambati said. “This drug is already in clinical trials for other diseases, and we plan to also test K9 in Alzheimer’s disease.”

Findings Published

The researchers have published their findings in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 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’ disclosures is included in the paper.

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.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Common lung bacteria team up to evade immune defenses

2025-05-08
The incidence of infection by Mycobacterium abscessus, is increasing in patients with cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other chronic pulmonary diseases, leading to an accelerated lung function decline. Remarkably, 58–78% of patients with M. abscessus infection are also infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the most common pathogen in these conditions. However, how these two bacterial species interact during infection remains poorly understood. Now, a new study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Universitat ...

Eating ultra-processed foods may harm your health

2025-05-08
Consumption of ultra-processed foods, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, potato chips and packaged cookies, may be associated with adverse health outcomes, according to research being presented at the ACC Asia 2025 Together with SCS 36th Annual Scientific Meeting taking place May 9-11 in Singapore. This risk for hypertension, other cardiovascular events, cancer, digestive diseases, mortality and more, increased with every 100 grams of ultra-processed foods consumed each day. “Ultra-processed foods are characterized by high sugar, high salt, and other non-nutritive components, exhibiting low nutritional density yet ...

Major US cities are sinking

2025-05-08
Twenty-eight major U.S. cities, including New York, Dallas, and Seattle, are seeing urban areas sink by 2 to 10 millimeters per year, according to new research from Virginia Tech. The major cause is groundwater extraction. Published in Nature Cities, the study used satellite-based radar measurements to create high-resolution maps of subsidence, or sinking land, for 28 of the most populous U.S. cities. The cities are home to 34 million people, about 12 percent of the total U.S. population. In every city studied, at least 20 percent of the urban area ...

New study traces sharp regional shifts in ischemic heart disease burden — a global warning signal

2025-05-08
A new study puts the spotlight on the rising burden of ischemic heart disease across Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania, and calls for localized, equity-focused interventions in these regions. The researchers identified region-specific, modifiable risk factors that influence the increasing prevalence of ischemic heart disease, such as toxic air pollution in East Asia and ultra-processed dietary dependence in Oceania. The study will be presented at the ACC Asia 2025 Together With SCS 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Singapore.   Ischemic heart disease (IHD) occurs ...

Too fast to see

2025-05-08
If you quickly move a camera from object to object, the abrupt shift between the two points causes a motion smear that might give you nausea. Our eyes, however, do movements like these two or three times per second. These rapid movements are called saccades, and although the visual stimulus during a saccade shifts abruptly across the retina, our brain seems to keep it under the hood: we never perceive the shift. New research shows that the speed of our saccades predicts the speed limit in our vision when an object becomes too fast to see. According to a study published in Nature ...

All of the biggest U.S. cities are sinking

2025-05-08
A new study of the 28 most populous U.S. cities finds that all are sinking to one degree or another. The cities include not just those on the coasts, where relative sea level is a concern, but many in the interior. Furthermore, using newly granular data, the study finds that some cities are sinking at different rates in different spots, or sinking in some places and rising in others, potentially introducing stresses that could affect buildings and other infrastructure. Massive ongoing groundwater extraction is the most common cause of these land movements, say the authors, though other ...

Database reveals vital ocean links to aid conservation

2025-05-08
Scientists have launched an interactive global map to show the migratory patterns of more than 100 marine species in an effort to protect at-risk wildlife.   New models were developed by The University of Queensland and Duke University scientists to be part of the Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) database which aims to bridge information gaps for policymakers and conservationists. Dr Lily Bentley from UQ’s Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science said the online tool was the first freely accessible global view of marine migratory connectivity. “Covering ...

Robotic dog mimics mammals for superior mobility on land and in water

2025-05-08
A team of researchers has unveiled a cutting-edge Amphibious Robotic Dog capable of roving across both land and water with remarkable efficiency. The study, published in IOP Publishing’s Bioinspiration and Biometrics, was inspired by mammals’ ability to move through water as well as on land. Existing amphibious robots are largely inspired by reptiles or insects, and often face limitations in agility, dynamics, and load capacity. Basing the amphibious robot on the swimming style of dogs allows for it to easily transition between land and water and overcome many ...

Mammal’s lifespans linked to brain size and immune system function, says new study

2025-05-08
Why do cats generally live longer than dogs? New research suggests that longer livespans of mammals like cats could be linked to their bigger brains and more complex immune systems. An international team of scientists led by the University of Bath studied evolutionary differences between mammal species and found that those with bigger brains and longer lifespans tend to invest more heavily in immune-related genes. Their findings show how broad genomic changes, rather than individual genes, shape longevity. The researchers looked at the maximum lifespan potential of 46 species of mammals and mapped the genes shared across these species. The maximum lifespan ...

Top EU food & agri institutes launch new science alliance

2025-05-08
Five of Europe’s leading agricultural, food and life sciences institutions announce the launch of the European Science Alliance for Agriculture and Food (ESAAF)—a new scientific coalition designed to support the transformation and resilience of the EU agri-food sector.   ESAAF aims to harness the momentum and shared ambition across Europe to create sustainable, competitive, and resilient food systems. EU policy makers have some pressing dilemmas to tackle in that regard. ESAAF will serve as a hub and dedicated scientific voice in food system policy discussions, ensuring that sound, independent evidence underpins future strategies.  The founding members of ESAAF ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Engineering an antibody against flu with sticky staying power

Is AI truly creative? Turns out creativity is in the eye of the beholder

Community science helps reveal population growth among SoCal’s endangered giant sea bass

FAU CARD releases free water safety guide for children with Autism

Enhanced DLP-based one-step 3D printing of multifunctional magnetic soft robot

Discovery opens up for new ways to treat chlamydia

Evaluating the safety and efficacy of a smallpox vaccine for preventing mpox

HIV drugs offer ‘substantial’ Alzheimer’s protection, new research indicates

Common lung bacteria team up to evade immune defenses

Eating ultra-processed foods may harm your health

Major US cities are sinking

New study traces sharp regional shifts in ischemic heart disease burden — a global warning signal

Too fast to see

All of the biggest U.S. cities are sinking

Database reveals vital ocean links to aid conservation

Robotic dog mimics mammals for superior mobility on land and in water

Mammal’s lifespans linked to brain size and immune system function, says new study

Top EU food & agri institutes launch new science alliance

How to reduce global CO2 emissions from industry

Nature visits can improve well-being disparities among urban dwellers

Silent scorpion-sting epidemic in Brazil driven by urbanization and climate change

GP-led talking therapy eases PTSD symptoms after critical illness

Removing ovaries and fallopian tubes linked to lower risk of early death among breast cancer patients with BRCA cancer genes

The Lancet: Nearly half of sexual abuse first happens at age 15 or younger

Satellites observe glacier committing “ice piracy”

Non-inherited genes affect children’s development

Social media platform tailoring could support more fulfilling use, study finds

The hope for detecting Parkinson’s disease much earlier with a simple brain scan

MRI breakthrough could revolutionize diagnosis of common heart problem aortic stenosis

Enhanced CAR T cell therapy offers new strategy for lymphoma

[Press-News.org] HIV drugs offer ‘substantial’ Alzheimer’s protection, new research indicates