Trial reportMedical microbiology and immunology2003
Doxycycline as a novel strategy against bancroftian filariasis-depletion of Wolbachia endosymbionts from Wuchereria bancrofti and stop of microfilaria production.
Trial report in Medical microbiology and immunology, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
61 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 157 citations in OpenAlex.
- Doxycycline plus ivermectin versus ivermectin alone for treatment of patients with onchocerciasis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Adherence to Hygiene Protocols and Doxycycline Therapy in Ameliorating Lymphatic Filariasis Morbidity in an Endemic Area Post-Interruption of Disease Transmission in Ghana.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2024Trial
- The Efficacy of Doxycycline Treatment onThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2019Trial
- Comparison of Doxycycline, Minocycline, Doxycycline plus Albendazole and Albendazole Alone in Their Efficacy against Onchocerciasis in a Randomized, Open-Label, Pilot Trial.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2017Trial
- Doxycycline reduces plasma VEGF-C/sVEGFR-3 and improves pathology in lymphatic filariasis.PLoS pathogens · 2006Trial
- Blocking Dirofilaria immitis transmission by treatment of heartworm microfilaremic dogs with doxycycline.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Current perspectives in the epidemiology and control of lymphatic filariasis.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Review
- Miniature spatial transcriptomics for studying parasite-endosymbiont relationships at the micro scale.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Long-term evaluation of viability of microfilariae and intravenously transplanted adult Dirofilaria immitis in microfilaremic dogs treated with low-dose, short- and long-treatment regimens of doxycycline and ivermectin.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Filariasis research - from basic research to drug development and novel diagnostics, over a decade of research at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Bonn, Germany.Frontiers in tropical diseases · 2023Article
- The pipeline for drugs for control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases: 1. Anti-infective drugs for regulatory registration.Parasites & vectors · 2023Review
- Doxycycline hyclate stimulates inducible nitric oxide synthase and arginase imbalance, potentiating inflammatory and oxidative lung damage in schistosomiasis.Biomedical journal · 2022Article
- Pyrvinium Pamoate and Structural Analogs Are Early Macrofilaricide Leads.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Current perspective of new anti-Wolbachial and direct-acting macrofilaricidal drugs as treatment strategies for human filariasis.GMS infectious diseases · 2022Review
- Pharmacological Treatment of Secondary Lymphedema.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Human filariasis-contributions of the Litomosoides sigmodontis and Acanthocheilonema viteae animal model.Parasitology research · 2021Review
- Potential drug development and therapeutic approaches for clinical intervention in COVID-19.Bioorganic chemistry · 2021Review
- Heartworm disease - Overview, intervention, and industry perspective.International journal for parasitology. Drugs and drug resistance · 2021Review
- Diminutive, degraded but dissimilar:Microbial genomics · 2020Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chemotherapy of onchocerciasis by doxycycline, which targets symbiotic Wolbachia endobacteria, has been shown to result in a long-term sterility of adult female worms and corresponding absence of microfilariae. It represents an additional chemotherapeutic approach. The aim of this study was to determine whether a similar regimen would also show efficacy against Wuchereria bancrofti. Ghanaian individuals ( n=93) with lymphatic filariasis and a minimum microfilaremia of 40 microfilariae/ml were included in a treatment study consisting of four arms: (1) doxycycline 200 mg/day for 6 weeks; (2) doxycycline as in (1), followed by a single dose of ivermectin after 4 months; (3) ivermectin only; or (4) no treatment during observation period of 1 year (ivermectin at the end of the study). Doxycycline treatment resulted in a 96% loss of Wolbachia, as determined by real time PCR from microfilariae. After 12 months, doxycycline had led to a 99% reduction of microfilaremia when given alone, and to a complete amicrofilaremia together with ivermectin. In contrast, after ivermectin treatment alone a significant presence of microfilariae remained (9% compared to pretreatment), as known from other studies. This study shows that doxycycline is also effective in depleting Wolbachia from W. bancrofti. It is likely that the mechanism of doxycycline is similar to that in other filarial species, i.e., a predominant blockade of embryogenesis, leading to a decline of microfilariae according to their half-life. This could render doxycycline treatment an additional tool for the treatment of microfilaria-associated diseases in bancroftian filariasis, such as tropical pulmonary eosinophilia and microfiluria.
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.