Trial reportClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2015
Doxycycline Leads to Sterility and Enhanced Killing of Female Onchocerca volvulus Worms in an Area With Persistent Microfilaridermia After Repeated Ivermectin Treatment: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Trial.
Trial report in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
55 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Design and analysis of randomized clinical trials for onchocerciasis, loiasis and mansonellosis: A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing the efficacy of high-dose rifampicin plus albendazole against onchocerciasis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Trial
- Efficacy of Intensified Hygiene Measures with or without the Addition of Doxycycline in the Management of Filarial Lymphedema: A Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial in Tanzania.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2024Trial
- 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
- 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
- Robust COVID-19 Vaccine Responses Despite Filarial Co-Infection: Insights from a Lymphatic Filariasis Cohort in Ghana.Vaccines · 2025Article
- Bacterial Community Survey ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Use of medicinal plants as a remedy against lymphatic filariasis: Current status and future prospect.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Acceptability of test and treat with doxycycline against Onchocerciasis in an area of persistent transmission in Massangam Health District, Cameroon.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 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
- Histopathological evaluation ofFrontiers in medicine · 2023Article
- Evaluating the impact of alternative intervention strategies in accelerating onchocerciasis elimination in an area of persistent transmission in the West Region of Cameroon.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- A qPCR to quantify Wolbachia from few Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae as a surrogate for adult worm histology in clinical trials of antiwolbachial drugs.Parasitology research · 2022Article
- Pyrvinium Pamoate and Structural Analogs Are Early Macrofilaricide Leads.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The filarial and the antibiotics: Single or combination therapy using antibiotics for filariasis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Whole blood transcriptome analysis in onchocerciasis.Current research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIvermectin (IVM) has been the drug of choice for the treatment of onchocerciasis. However, there have been reports of persistent microfilaridermia in individuals from an endemic area in Ghana after many rounds of IVM, raising concerns of suboptimal response or even the emergence of drug resistance. Because it is considered risky to continue relying only on IVM to combat this phenomenon, we assessed the effect of targeting the Onchocerca volvulus Wolbachia endosymbionts with doxycycline for these individuals with suboptimal response.
methodsOne hundred sixty-seven patients, most of them with multiple rounds of IVM, were recruited in areas with IVM suboptimal response and treated with 100 mg/day doxycycline for 6 weeks. Three and 12 months after doxycycline treatment, patients took part in standard IVM treatment.
resultsAt 20 months after treatment, 80% of living female worms from the placebo group were Wolbachia positive, whereas only 5.1% in the doxycycline-treated group contained bacteria. Consistent with interruption of embryogenesis, none of the nodules removed from doxycycline-treated patients contained microfilariae, and 97% of those patients were without microfilaridermia, in contrast to placebo patients who remained at pretreatment levels (P < .001). Moreover, a significantly enhanced number of dead worms were observed after doxycycline.
conclusionsTargeting the Wolbachia in O. volvulus is effective in clearing microfilariae in the skin of onchocerciasis patients with persistent microfilaridermia and in enhanced killing of adult worms after repeated standard IVM treatment. Strategies can now be developed that include doxycycline to control onchocerciasis in areas where infections persist despite the frequent use of IVM. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: ISRCTN 66649839.
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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.