Bumetanide Might Prevent Alzheimer’s, Real-World Data Suggest

Real-world evidence demonstrated that a drug prescribed to treat swelling and high blood pressure could help reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, claimed researchers from the San Francisco, Calif.-based Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Real-world data included in the study suggested that patients over age 65 regularly taking bumetanide — a generic used for 30-plus years to address fluid retention linked with hypertension and heart failure — were 35 percent to 75 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers relied on electronic health records to gather the data from millions of people, and such use of real-world evidence could revolutionize how Alzheimer’s drugs are developed.

“[Bumetanide] is a drug with a well-established safety record, so it could reach patients much faster than typical drug development takes,” explained Yadong Huang, Gladstone senior investigator and co-author of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study published this week in Nature Aging.