Trial reportParasitology research2008
Efficacy of 2- and 4-week rifampicin treatment on the Wolbachia of Onchocerca volvulus.
Trial report in Parasitology research, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 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
43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antifilarial treatment strategies: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Assessing the efficacy of high-dose rifampicin plus albendazole against onchocerciasis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Trial
- High-Dose Rifampicin Plus Albendazole Rapidly Clears Lymphatic Filariasis Circulating Filarial Antigen in a Randomised Clinical Trial: A Promising Step Toward Short-Course Macrofilaricidal Therapy.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Trial
- Comparison of 6-Week Doxycycline vs 6-Week Rifampicin or 3 Weeks of Doxycycline Plus Rifampicin in the Treatment of Onchocerciasis: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind, Phase 2 Trial.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- High-resolution mapping of onchocerciasis risk in Ghana using spatial machine learning models.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Onchocerciasis overview: pathogenesis, clinical spectrum, and therapeutic challenges of a neglected tropical disease.Frontiers in parasitology · 2026Review
- Autophagy is essential for anti-Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Improved metagenome assemblies through selective enrichment of bacterial genomic DNA from eukaryotic host genomic DNA using ATAC-seq.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Dual RNA-seq in filarial nematodes andFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- The pipeline for drugs for control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases: 2. Oral anti-infective drugs and drug combinations for off-label use.Parasites & vectors · 2023Review
- Miniature spatial transcriptomics for studying parasite-endosymbiont relationships at the micro scale.Nature communications · 2023Article
- 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
- Onchocerciasis drug development: from preclinical models to humans.Parasitology research · 2021Review
- Human filariasis-contributions of the Litomosoides sigmodontis and Acanthocheilonema viteae animal model.Parasitology research · 2021Review
- In vivo efficacy of the boron-pleuromutilin AN11251 against Wolbachia of the rodent filarial nematode Litomosoides sigmodontis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Article
- The Wolbachia Symbiont: Here, There and Everywhere.Results and problems in cell differentiation · 2020Article
- Quantitative methods for assessing local and bodywide contributions to Wolbachia titer in maternal germline cells of Drosophila.BMC microbiology · 2019Article
- Advances in Antiwolbachial Drug Discovery for Treatment of Parasitic Filarial Worm Infections.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2019Review
- Anti-The Indian journal of medical research · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The microfilaricidal and temporarily sterilizing drug ivermectin is used for mass treatment of filarial infections. Filariae containing Wolbachia endobacteria can also be treated by the antibiotic doxycycline. The loss of Wolbachia results in sterilization of Onchocerca volvulus and macrofilaricidal effects. Besides doxycycline, other antibiotics may be effective in depleting Wolbachia. A preliminary study on the effects of rifampicin on the endobacteria, embryogenesis and microfilariae production of O. volvulus was carried out in the year 2000 in Ghana. Twenty-six onchocerciasis patients were treated for 2 or 4 weeks with 10 mg/kg/day rifampicin. From 17 treated and nine untreated patients, all palpable nodules were extirpated 1 or 18 months after the start of the study and examined for Wolbachia and embryogenesis using immunohistology. One and 18 months after rifampicin treatment, the proportion of Wolbachia-positive worms was significantly reduced compared to the untreated group. In patients treated 4 weeks with rifampicin, only 21% and 18% of living female filariae contained Wolbachia after 1 and 18 months, respectively, compared to 92% in the untreated patients. The reduction of Wolbachia after 2 weeks rifampicin was less but also significant. Embryogenesis and microfilariae production were reduced after 4 weeks rifampicin treatment, rendering rifampicin an antibiotic with anti-wolbachial efficacy in human onchocerciasis. This treatment is less efficient than treatment with 6 weeks doxycycline, but might be an alternative for cases that cannot be treated with doxycycline, e.g. children, or might be further developed for combination therapy.
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.