Minocycline in phenotypic models of Huntington's disease

• Main Authors: Kadiombo Bantubungi, Carine Jacquard, Anita Greco, Annita Pintor, Abdelwahed Chtarto, Khalid Tai, Marie-Christine Galas, Liliane Tenenbaum, Nicole Déglon, Patrizia Popoli, Luisa Minghetti, Emmanuel Brouillet, Jacques Brotchi, Marc Levivier, Serge N. Schiffmann, David Blum
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2005-02-01
• Series: Neurobiology of Disease
• Subjects: Huntington's disease; 3-Nitropropionic acid; Quinolinic acid; Minocycline; Striatum; Cell death
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996104002311

Minocycline has been shown to be neuroprotective in various models of neurodegenerative diseases. However, its potential in Huntington's disease (HD) models characterized by calpain-dependent degeneration and inflammation has not been investigated. Here, we have tested minocycline in phenotypic models of HD using 3-nitropropionic acid (3NP) intoxication and quinolinic acid (QA) injections. In the 3NP rat model, where the development of striatal lesions involves calpain, we found that minocycline was not protective, although it attenuated the development of inflammation induced after the onset of striatal degeneration. The lack of minocycline activity on calpain-dependent cell death was also confirmed in vitro using primary striatal cells. Conversely, we found that minocycline reduced lesions and inflammation induced by QA. In cultured cells, minocycline protected against mutated huntingtin and staurosporine, stimulations known to promote caspase-dependent cell death. Altogether, these data suggested that, in HD, minocycline may counteract the development of caspase-dependent neurodegeneration, inflammation, but not calpain-dependent neuronal death.