Therapeutic efficacy and macrofilaricidal activity of doxycycline for the treatment of river blindness.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Onchocerca volvulus and lymphatic filariae, causing river blindness and elephantiasis, depend on endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria for growth, development, fertility, and survival. Clinical trials have shown that doxycycline treatment eliminates Wolbachia, causing long-term sterilization of adult female filariae and effecting potent macrofilaricidal activity. The continual reinfection by drug-naive worms that occurs in these trial settings dilutes observable anti-Wolbachia and antifilarial effects, making it difficult to estimate therapeutic efficacy and compare different doxycycline regimens, evaluated at different times after treatment.

Methods

A meta-analytical modeling framework is developed to link all usable data collected from clinical trials measuring the W

SUBMITTER: Walker M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4370165 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature