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Does minocycline, an antibiotic with inhibitory effects on microglial activation, sharpen a sense of trust in social interaction?

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Abstract

Rationale

Minocycline has long been applied to various infectious diseases as a tetracycline antibiotic and recently has found new application in the treatment of brain diseases such as stroke and multiple sclerosis. In addition, minocycline has also been suggested as an effective drug for psychiatric diseases. These suggestions imply that minocycline may modulate our mental activities, while the underlying mechanism remains to be clarified.

Objective

To investigate how minocycline influences human mental activity, we experimentally examined how minocycline works on human social decision making in a double-blind randomized trial.

Methods

Forty-nine healthy volunteers were administered minocycline or placebo over four days, after which they played (1) a trust game, in which they decided how much to trust an anonymous partner, and (2) a dictator game, in which they decided how to divide resources between themselves and an anonymous partner.

Results

The minocycline group did not display increased trusting behavior or more altruistic resource allocation. In fact, the minocycline group displayed a slight reduction in trusting behavior. However, the minocycline group did show a strong positive correlation between the degree of risk taking in the trust game and in a separate evaluation of others' trustworthiness, whereas the placebo group showed no such correlation.

Conclusions

These results suggest that minocycline led to more rational decision-making strategies, possibly by increasing emotion regulation. Since minocycline is a well-known inhibitor of microglial activation, our findings may open a new optional pathway for treating mental states in which a component of rational decision making is impaired.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Grant-in-Aid from JSPS to Motoki Watabe, Takahiro A. Kato, Akira Monji, and Shigenobu Kanba. We thank to Prof. Kazuhide Hashiya and Mr. Katsuhiko Ishikawa (Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University) for their technical supports.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no financial conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University, Building No.9. 1-6-1 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169-8050, Japan

    Motoki Watabe

  2. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan

    Takahiro A. Kato, Akira Monji, Hideki Horikawa & Shigenobu Kanba

  3. Innovation Center for Medical Redox Navigation, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Takahiro A. Kato

Authors
  1. Motoki Watabe
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  2. Takahiro A. Kato
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  3. Akira Monji
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  4. Hideki Horikawa
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  5. Shigenobu Kanba
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Motoki Watabe or Takahiro A. Kato.

Additional information

Motoki Watabe and Takahiro A. Kato contributed equally to this work.

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Watabe, M., Kato, T.A., Monji, A. et al. Does minocycline, an antibiotic with inhibitory effects on microglial activation, sharpen a sense of trust in social interaction?. Psychopharmacology 220, 551–557 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2509-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2509-8

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