Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

ALZHEIMER DISEASE

In search of an anti-inflammatory drug for Alzheimer disease

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 16, pages 131–132 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Evidence suggests that chronic neuroinflammation has an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. However, in a new clinical trial, the tetracycline antibiotic minocycline, which has anti-inflammatory properties, failed to delay disease progression in individuals with mild Alzheimer disease.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Change in sMMSE score from baseline to month 24.

References

  1. Mrak, R. E. & Griffin, W. S. Glia and their cytokines in progression of neurodegeneration. Neurobiol. Aging 26, 349–354 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Lambert, J. C. et al. Genome-wide association study identifies variants at CLU and CR1 associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Nat. Genet. 41, 1094–1099 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jonsson, T. et al. Variant of TREM2 associated with the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. N. Engl. J. Med. 368, 107–116 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Wilkins, H. M. et al. Mitochondrial lysates induce inflammation and Alzheimer’s disease-relevant changes in microglial and neuronal cells. J. Alzheimers Dis. 45, 305–318 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Howard, R. et al. Minocycline at 2 different dosages versus placebo for patients with mild Alzheimer disease: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Neurol. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.3762 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Elewa, H. F., Hilali, H., Hess, D. C., Machado, L. S. & Fagan, S. C. Minocycline for short-term neuroprotection. Pharmacotherapy 26, 515–521 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Garcez, M. L. et al. Minocycline reduces inflammatory parameters in the brain structures and serum and reverses memory impairment caused by the administration of amyloid beta (1–42) in mice. Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiatry 77, 23–31 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhou, M., Kaelber, D., Xu, R. & Gurney, M. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocking agents reduce risk for Alzheimer’s disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Preprint at medRXiv https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/19007666v1 (2019).

  9. Venigalla, M., Sonego, S., Gyengesi, E., Sharman, M. J. & Münch, G. Novel promising therapeutics against chronic neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurochem. Int. 95, 63–74 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Dupont, A. C. et al. Translocator protein-18 kDa (TSPO) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and its clinical impact in neurodegenerative diseases. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 18, 785 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pharmacology Unit, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, Australia

    Erika Gyengesi & Gerald Münch

  2. NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia

    Gerald Münch

Authors
  1. Erika Gyengesi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gerald Münch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerald Münch.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gyengesi, E., Münch, G. In search of an anti-inflammatory drug for Alzheimer disease. Nat Rev Neurol 16, 131–132 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0307-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0307-9

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing