Minocycline Treatment (minocycline + treatment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Minocycline attenuates microglial activation but fails to mitigate striatal dopaminergic neurotoxicity: role of tumor necrosis factor-,

JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2006
Krishnan Sriram
Abstract Activated microglia are implicated in the pathogenesis of disease-, trauma- and toxicant-induced damage to the CNS, and strategies to modulate microglial activation are gaining impetus. A novel action of the tetracycline derivative minocycline is the ability to inhibit inflammation and free radical formation, factors that influence microglial activation. Minocycline is therefore being tested as a neuroprotective agent to alleviate CNS damage, although findings so far have yielded mixed results. Here, we showed that administration of a single low dose of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) or methamphetamine (METH), a paradigm that causes selective degeneration of striatal dopaminergic nerve terminals without affecting the cell body in substantia nigra, increased the expression of mRNAs encoding microglia-associated factors F4/80, interleukin (IL)-1,, IL-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1, CCL2) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-,. Minocycline treatment attenuated MPTP- or METH-mediated microglial activation, but failed to afford neuroprotection. Lack of neuroprotection was shown to be due to the inability of minocycline to abolish the induction of TNF-, and its receptors, thereby failing to modulate TNF signaling. Thus, TNF-, appeared to be an obligatory component of dopaminergic neurotoxicity. To address this possibility, we examined the effects of MPTP or METH in mice lacking genes encoding IL-6, CCL2 or TNF receptor (TNFR)1/2. Deficiency of either IL-6 or CCL2 did not alter MPTP neurotoxicity. However, deficiency of both TNFRs protected against the dopaminergic neurotoxicity of MPTP. Taken together, our findings suggest that attenuation of microglial activation is insufficient to modulate neurotoxicity as transient activation of microglia may suffice to initiate neurodegeneration. These findings support the hypothesis that TNF-, may play a role in the selective vulnerability of the nigrostriatal pathway associated with dopaminergic neurotoxicity and perhaps Parkinson's disease. [source]


Minocycline treatment following hypoxic/ischaemic injury attenuates white matter injury in a rodent model of periventricular leucomalacia

NEUROPATHOLOGY & APPLIED NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
M. Lechpammer
Aims: Periventricular white matter injury in premature infants occurs following hypoxia/ischaemia and systemic infection, and results in hypomyelination, as well as neuromotor and cognitive deficits later in life. Inflammatory infiltrates are seen within human cerebral white matter from periventricular leucomalacia (PVL) cases. Methods: In this study, we examine the time course of CD-68+ microglial cell responses relative to cell death within white matter following hypoxia/ischaemia in a rat model of PVL. We also tested the efficacy of the minocycline, an agent that suppresses microglial activation, in this model when administered as a post-insult treatment. Results: We show that preoligodendrocyte injury in the post-natal day 6 begins within 24 h and continues for 48,96 h after hypoxia/ischaemia, and that microglial responses occur primarily over the first 96 h following hypoxia/ischaemia. Minocycline treatment over this 96 h time window following the insult resulted in significant protection against white matter injury, and this effect was concomitant with a reduction in CD-68+ microglial cell numbers. Conclusions: These results suggest that anti-inflammatory treatments may represent a useful strategy in the treatment of PVL, where clinical conditions would favour a post-insult treatment strategy. [source]


Minocycline prevents cholinergic loss in a mouse model of Down's syndrome

ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 5 2004
Christopher L. Hunter PhD
Individuals with Down's syndrome develop Alzheimer's-like pathologies comparatively early in life, including progressive degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs). Cholinergic hypofunction contributes to dementia-related cognitive decline and remains a target of therapeutic intervention for Alzheimer's disease. In light of this, partial trisomy 16 (Ts65Dn) mice have been developed to provide an animal model of Down's syndrome that exhibits progressive loss of BFCNs and cognitive ability. Another feature common to both Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease is neuroinflammation, which may exacerbate neurodegeneration, including cholinergic loss. Minocycline is a semisynthetic tetracycline with antiinflammatory properties that has demonstrated neuroprotective properties in certain disease models. Consistent with a role for inflammatory processes in BFCN degeneration, we have shown previously that minocycline protects BFCNs and improves memory in mice with acute, immunotoxic BFCN lesions. We now report that minocycline treatment inhibits microglial activation, prevents progressive BFCN decline, and markedly improves performance of Ts65Dn mice on a working and reference memory task. Minocycline is an established antiinflammatory and neuroprotective drug and may provide a novel approach to treat specific AD-like pathologies. Ann Neurol 2004 [source]