Trial reportMolecular psychiatry2018
Blocking human fear memory with the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor doxycycline.
Trial report in Molecular psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attenuating trauma- and cocaine-related intrusions by blocking memory reconsolidation with minocycline: protocol for a transdiagnostic randomized controlled trial.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Trial
- Effects of doxycycline on intrusive experimental trauma memory: a pre-registered, randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- The impact of doxycycline on human contextual fear memory.Psychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Attenuating human fear memory retention with minocycline: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Effect of the Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitor Doxycycline on Human Trace Fear Memory.eNeuro · 2023Trial
- Cannabinoid use generalizes stress responses: involvement of astrocyte plasticity and activation of matrix metalloproteinases in the nucleus accumbens core.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- MMP-2/9 inhibition modulates sharp wave abundance, inhibitory proteoglycan sulfation, and fear memory in juvenile zebrafish: relevance to affective disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Modeling collective behavior in groups of mice housed under semi-naturalistic conditions.eLife · 2025Article
- Information sharing within a social network is key to behavioral flexibility-Lessons from mice tested under seminaturalistic conditions.Science advances · 2025Article
- Article
- Dimensionality and optimal combination of autonomic fear-conditioning measures in humans.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Preferential and sustained platelet activation in COVID-19 survivors with mental disorders.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Measuring human context fear conditioning and retention after consolidation.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Aerobic exercise after extinction learning reduces return of fear and enhances memory of items encoded during extinction learning.Mental health and physical activity · 2023Article
- Impact of Mephedrone on Fear Memory in Adolescent Rats: Involvement of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) Receptor.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Exploring brain glutathione and peripheral blood markers in posttraumatic stress disorder: a combined [1H]MRS and peripheral blood study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Measuring human trace fear conditioning.Psychophysiology · 2022Article
- Cross-species anxiety tests in psychiatry: pitfalls and promises.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- Saccadic scanpath length: an index for human threat conditioning.Behavior research methods · 2021Article
- Extracellular matrix remodeling with stress and depression: Studies in human, rodent and zebrafish models.The European journal of neuroscience · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Learning to predict threat is a fundamental ability of many biological organisms, and a laboratory model for anxiety disorders. Interfering with such memories in humans would be of high clinical relevance. On the basis of studies in cell cultures and slice preparations, it is hypothesised that synaptic remodelling required for threat learning involves the extracellular enzyme matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 9. However, in vivo evidence for this proposal is lacking. Here we investigate human Pavlovian fear conditioning under the blood-brain barrier crossing MMP inhibitor doxycyline in a pre-registered, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. We find that recall of threat memory, measured with fear-potentiated startle 7 days after acquisition, is attenuated by ~60% in individuals who were under doxycycline during acquisition. This threat memory impairment is also reflected in increased behavioural surprise signals to the conditioned stimulus during subsequent re-learning, and already late during initial acquisition. Our findings support an emerging view that extracellular signalling pathways are crucially required for threat memory formation. Furthermore, they suggest novel pharmacological methods for primary prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.