ArticleThe Journal of clinical investigation1999
Tetracycline therapy targets intracellular bacteria in the filarial nematode Litomosoides sigmodontis and results in filarial infertility.
Article in The Journal of clinical investigation, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 135 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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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
135 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 341 citations in OpenAlex.
- Therapeutic efficacy and macrofilaricidal activity of doxycycline for the treatment of river blindness.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2015Pooled it
- Retarded Onchocerca volvulus L1 to L3 larval development in the Simulium damnosum vector after anti-wolbachial treatment of the human host.Parasites & vectors · 2012Trial
- Wolbachia endobacteria depletion by doxycycline as antifilarial therapy has macrofilaricidal activity in onchocerciasis: a randomized placebo-controlled study.Medical microbiology and immunology · 2008Trial
- Doxycycline as a novel strategy against bancroftian filariasis-depletion of Wolbachia endosymbionts from Wuchereria bancrofti and stop of microfilaria production.Medical microbiology and immunology · 2003Trial
- Blocking Dirofilaria immitis transmission by treatment of heartworm microfilaremic dogs with doxycycline.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- The history of Wolbachia and heartworm.Parasites & vectors · 2026Review
- Ghosts of symbionts past: the hidden history of the dynamic association between filarial nematodes and their Wolbachia endosymbionts.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Fexinidazole and Corallopyronin A target Wolbachia-infected sheath cells present in filarial nematodes.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Fexinidazole and Corallopyronin A targetbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- The Diversity ofBiology · 2024Article
- The cellular lives of Wolbachia.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2023Review
- Inability of Dirofilaria immitis infective larvae from mosquitoes fed on blood from microfilaremic dogs during low-dose and short-treatment regimens of doxycycline and ivermectin to complete normal development in heartworm naïve dogs.Parasites & vectors · 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
- Wbm0076, a candidate effector protein of the Wolbachia endosymbiont of Brugia malayi, disrupts eukaryotic actin dynamics.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- First study on microscopic and molecular detection ofVeterinary world · 2023Article
- Whole genome analysis of two sympatric humanFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- Effects of Sublethal Concentrations of Tetracycline Hydrochloride on the Biological Characteristics andInsects · 2022Article
- Aspartyl Protease Inhibitors as Anti-Filarial Drugs.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
75 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
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Intracellular bacteria have been described in several species of filarial nematodes, but their relationships with, and effects on, their nematode hosts have not previously been elucidated. In this study, intracellular bacteria were observed in tissues of the rodent parasite Litomosoides sigmodontis by transmission electron microscopy and by immunohistochemistry using antiendobacterial heat shock protein-60 antisera. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene, isolated by PCR, showed a close relationship to the rickettsial Wolbachia endobacteria of arthropods and to other filarial intracellular bacteria. The impact of tetracycline therapy of infected rodents on L. sigmodontis development was analyzed in order to understand the role(s) these bacteria might play in filarial biology. Tetracycline therapy, when initiated with L. sigmodontis infection, eliminated the bacteria and resulted in filarial growth retardation and infertility. If initiated after microfilarial development, treatment reduced filarial fertility. Treatment with antibiotics not affecting rickettsial bacteria did not inhibit filarial development. Acanthocheilonema viteae filariae were shown to lack intracellular bacteria and to be insensitive to tetracycline. These results suggest a mutualistic interaction between the intracellular bacteria and the filarial nematode. Investigation of such a mutualism in endobacteria-containing human filariae is warranted for a potential chemotherapeutic exploitation.
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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.