Tadalafil Treatment Improves Inflammation, Cognitive Function, And Mismatch Negativity Of Patients With Low Urinary Tract Symptoms And Erectile Dysfunction

Patients with Benign prostatic hyperplasia, low urinary tract symptoms, and erectile dysfunction (BPH/LUTS-ED) present chronic inflammation. We studied in patients with BPH/LUTS-ED the effect of tadalafil treatment (5 mg/day) on changes in peripheral inflammation, cognitive function, and the auditory evoked potential, “mismatch negativity” (MMN). Nine patients with BPH/LUTS-ED and 12 controls performed psychometric tests, MMN. IL-6, IL-17, IL-18, cGMP and CD4(+)CD28(−) autoreactive T-cells were measured in blood. Patients with BPH/LUTS-ED performed psychometric tests, MMN, and blood extraction at baseline and after tadalafil treatment. Patients with BPH/LUTS-ED showed increased CD4(+)CD28(−) autoreactive T-cells (p < 0.05), and higher levels of pro-inflammatory interleukins IL-6 (p < 0.001), IL-17 and IL-18 (p < 0.05), compared to controls. Patients got lower scores than controls in psychometric tests assessing mental processing speed and attention (p < 0.05), and showed lower amplitude (p < 0.01) and area (p < 0.05) of MMN wave than controls. Inflammatory, psychometric and electrophysiological parameters were normalized after tadalafil treatment. In conclusion, there is a pro-inflammatory environment in blood in patients with BPH/LUTS-ED which would induce cognitive impairment and alter MMN. Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition with tadalafil exerts anti-inflammatory effects and ameliorates cognitive function and MMN parameters. Tadalafil could be a promising candidate for chronic treatment in other inflammatory pathologies associated with mild cognitive impairment.