Researchers from the Netherlands have found that a hypertension drug can increase blood flow to key regions of the brain in people with Alzheimer’s Disease. Further study may answer the question of whether this increased blood flow, and high blood pressure therapy, could have clinical benefits for those with the disease, they wrote.
Brain changes such as reduced blood flow are known to occur in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. The investigators sought to find how nilvadipine, a calcium channel blocker, affected cerebral blood flow in those with mild to moderate forms of the disease. They randomly assigned 44 participants to receive the drug or a placebo for six months, and then used magnetic resonance imaging to measure blood flow to specific brain regions. The nilvadipine reduced blood pressure and increased cerebral blood flow in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory and learning center, without affecting other brain regions, wrote lead author Jurgen Claassen, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor at Radboud University Medical Center.
The results are promising, Claassen told the American Heart Association, in part because the treatment did not appear to decrease blood flow to other regions of the brain, which may cause more harm than benefit. “Even though no medical treatment is without risk, getting treatment for high blood pressure could be important to maintain brain health in patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” he concluded.
