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Comparator choices in pharmacoepidemiology studies of Alzheimer’s disease

Nature Aging volume 3, pages 791–792 (2023)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 22 May 2023

The Original Article was published on 06 December 2021

arising from J. Fang et al. Nature Aging https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00138-z (2021)

We read with great interest the study by Fang and colleagues in which they developed an endophenotype disease module-based methodology for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and identified sildenafil as a candidate drug to prevent AD among 1,608 US Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs1. To validate their methodology, the authors conducted in vitro studies and found a plausible biological mechanism for sildenafil in preventing AD. The authors also performed a pharmacoepidemiology study with patient data from the MarketScan Medicare Supplemental Database, where they compared the hazard of AD among new users of sildenafil to nonusers and new users of either diltiazem, losartan, glimepiride or metformin. The authors found that sildenafil lowered the hazard of AD by 55–69% and advocated for randomized trials with sildenafil for the primary prevention of AD.

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Acknowledgements

J.C.K. has previously received funding as a graduate research assistant from Merck & Co., Inc as well as GSK plc. T.S. receives investigator-initiated research funding and support as principal investigator (R01AG056479) from the National Institute on Aging, and as co-investigator (R01HL118255, R01MD011680), National Institutes of Health. He also receives salary support as Director of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER), NC TraCS Institute, UNC Clinical and Translational Science Award (UL1TR002489), the Center for Pharmacoepidemiology (current members: GlaxoSmithKline, UCB BioSciences, Takeda, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim), from pharmaceutical companies (Novo Nordisk) and from a generous contribution from Dr Nancy A. Dreyer to the Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Qoua L. Her, Jacob C. Kahrs & Til Stürmer

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  1. Qoua L. Her
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  2. Jacob C. Kahrs
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Contributions

Q.L.H., J.C.K. and T.S. contributed to the development, drafting, reviewing and revising of this paper. Q.L.H., J.C.K. and T.S. approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Qoua L. Her.

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Competing interests

Q.L.H., J.C.K. and T.S. declare no competing interests. T.S. does not accept personal compensation of any kind from any pharmaceutical company. He owns stock in Novartis, Roche and Novo Nordisk.

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Nature Aging thanks Emre Guney, Heather Allore, Jennifer Weuve and Kevin Wing for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Her, Q.L., Kahrs, J.C. & Stürmer, T. Comparator choices in pharmacoepidemiology studies of Alzheimer’s disease. Nat Aging 3, 791–792 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00417-x

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