Exposure to Certain HIV Drugs May Significantly Lower Risk for Alzheimer Disease

TUESDAY, May 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Exposure to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), which treat HIV and hepatitis B and inhibit inflammasome activation, is associated with a significantly lower incidence of Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study published online May 8 in Alzheimer”s & Dementia.

Joseph Magagnoli, from the Dorn Research Institute at the Columbia VA Health Care System in South Carolina, and colleagues examined the association between NRTI exposure and subsequent development of AD during a 24-year period in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration database and during a 14-year period in the MarketScan database.

The researchers found that the incidence of AD was significantly lower in association with NRTI exposure in both health insurance claims databases. In contrast, there was no association seen for exposure to non-NRTIs, protease inhibitors, or integrase strand transfer inhibitors with reduced AD incidence.

“Innate immune signaling through the NLRP3 inflammasome has been implicated in the pathogenesis of AD. A therapy that inhibits inflammasome activation could thus be neuroprotective and improve clinical outcomes in AD,” the authors write. “In the present study, we demonstrate that exposure to inflammasome-inhibiting NRTIs is associated with a significantly lower incidence of AD in two of the largest health insurance databases in the United States.”

One author disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry; two authors are named as inventors on matter-related patent applications.

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