Minocycline in Patients With Huntington's Disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited disorder. It is uniformly progressive and there is no known effective treatment or cure. The pathogenesis is largely unknown; however, recent studies implicate caspase activation, glutamate excitotoxicity, and free radical toxicity as possible causes of HD. Pharmacological agents that block these pathways may be therapeutic in HD. Minocycline is an antibiotic that also inhibits caspase-1 and caspase-3 expression, and inducible nitric oxide synthetase activity, which are factors that may play an important role in the mechanisms of neuropathology in HD. Two dosages of minocycline or placebo will be given to ambulatory patients with HD over an 8-week period and the tolerability will be compared. Additional measures of safety and the change in motor, behavior, cognitive, and function features will be examined.