Commentary & View

Minocycline as a potential therapeutic agent in neurodegenerative disorders characterized by protein misfolding

Volume 3, Issue 2   April/May/June 2009
Pages 78 - 83
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/pri.3.2.8820
Authors: Wendy Noble, Claire J. Garwood and Diane P. Hanger

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Abstract:

Many neurodegenerative disorders share common features including the accumulation of aggregated misfolded proteins, neuroinflammation and apoptotic neuronal death. While the contributions of each of these individual elements to neuronal death remain unclear, a commonly used antibiotic, minocycline, has been shown to reduce the progression and severity of disease in several models of neurodegeneration by variously downregulating these molecular pathways. Here we discuss the evidence for the potential of minocycline as a broad-specificity therapeutic agent for those neurodegenerative diseases that are characterised by the presence of misfolded proteins.

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