Common Antibiotic Holds Promise as Treatment For HD

Minocycline, an antibiotic used to treat some forms of acne and arthritis, slowed down the development of HD symptoms and cell death in transgenic mice, researchers reported in the July issue of the scientific journal Nature Medicine.

The paper, “Minocycline inhibits caspase-1 and caspase-3 expressions and delays mortality in a transgenic mouse model of Huntington Disease” was authored by a group of scientists, three of which are being funded by HDSA: Steven M. Hersch, M.D., Ph.D., Jang-Ho J. Cha, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert Freidlander, M.D.

The mice who received daily treatment with minocycline developed symptoms later than untreated mice. These mice also lived an average of 14% longer than untreated mice. In contrast, mice treated with another type of antibiotic did not appear to benefit at all.

“The drug that we used is one that is in the pharmacy today,” says the study’s senior author, Dr. Freidlander, an HDSA Coalition for the Cure researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts. “It would be one of the first drugs that would effective for Huntington’s Disease,” he said, though he cautioned that clinical trials need to be conducted to prove its effectiveness in humans.

Minocycline may someday be used in combination with other drugs that are developed to treat the disease, just as a multi-drug “cocktail” is used to treat AIDS. “It’s not a cure for Huntington’s Disease,” said Dr. Freidlander, but “we’re getting there.”

For more information about the HDSA Coalition for the Cure, visit the Huntington’s Disease Society of America at www.hdsa.org. For more information about this article, please visit Nature Medicine at www.nature.com.