PDE5 inhibition and Alzheimer's disease risk: a mendelian randomisation study
Alcalde-Herraiz, M.; Woolf, B.; Xie, J.; Anderson, E.; Gill, D.; Tzoulaki, I.; Winchester, L. M.; Yarmolinksy, J.; Prieto-Alhambra, D.; Newby, D.
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INTRODUCTIONWhile preclinical studies suggest that Phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibition may reduce cognitive impairment, findings from observational studies on whether PDE5 inhibitors reduce Alzheimers disease (AD) risk have been inconsistent. METHODSA two-sample cis-Mendelian Randomisation (MR) analysis was conducted to estimate the causal effect of PDE5 inhibition on AD risk. The analysis was performed across four different genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of AD to enhance evidence reliability through triangulation. Additionally, a sex-stratified MR analysis using data from UK Biobank was performed to assess potential sex-specific effects. RESULTSNo evidence of a causal association between PDE5 inhibition and AD risk was found in the main analyses or sex-stratified analysis. DISCUSSIONMR findings suggest that PDE5 inhibitors are unlikely to decrease the risk of AD. Further research is needed to thoroughly understand the impact of PDE5 inhibitors on the risk of Alzheimers disease.
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