A systematic review on potential mechanisms of minocycline in kidney diseases

Kidney diseases need specialized health care and still are a reason of death. There is a large body of evidence that indicates minocycline possesses some cytoprotective effects beside of antibacterial properties. In this review, we aimed to explain cytoprotective mechanisms and kidney protection of minocycline. In order to find the effects of minocycline on kidney diseases a systematic literature search was performed, according to the guidelines proposed at the PRISMA statement in the electronic databases, including: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science up to August 2016, using the term ‘minocycline’ combined either by ‘kidney’ or ‘renal’ and published in English language. The following criteria were included: (1) studies that used minocycline in renal diseases; (2) full-text articles; (3) English language; (4) no limitation in publications with in-vivo or in-vitro and human or animal subjects. Our search provided a total of 1056 articles which 1045 of them were discarded due to not meeting the inclusion criteria. It has been clear that several factors, including apoptosis, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation have pivotal roles in the development and progression of kidney diseases. Minocycline protective properties are via several ways, including anti-apoptotic, free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory, effect on mitochondrial functions and inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase. This systematic review confirmed that minocycline could have significant effects on treatment of renal malfunctions. However, regarding any possible adverse effects of antibiotics, it appears that more investigation is still needed in this context.