Experimental Applications
At subantimicrobial doses, doxycycline is an inhibitor of matrix metalloproteases, and has been used in various experimental systems for this purpose, such as for recalcitrant recurrent corneal erosions. Doxycycline has been demonstrated to reduce the in vitro growth of human breast and prostate cancer cells, possibly through G1 phase cell cycle arrest. Doxycycline and other tetracyclines are also highly osteotropic, and in animal models of breast cancer bone metastases, doxycycline treatments have reduced the growth of breast cancer tumours in the bone. Doxycycline has been used successfully in the treatment of one patient with lymphangioleiomyomatosis, an otherwise progressive and fatal disease. It has also been shown to attenuate cardiac hypertrophy (in mice), a deadly consequence of prolonged hypertension. In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, doxycycline has been shown to improve lung functions in patients with stable symptoms. Doxycycline is also used in "Tet-on" and "Tet-off" tetracycline-controlled transcriptional activation to regulate transgene expression in organisms and cell cultures.
Other experimental applications include treating:
- Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus
- Infected animal bite wounds (Pasteurella multocida, Pasteurella pneumotropica)
- Rheumatoid arthritis instead of minocycline (both of which have demonstrated modest efficacy for this disease)
- Chronic inflammatory lung diseases (panbronchiolitis, asthma, cystic fibrosis, bronchitis) Both doxycycline and minocycline have shown effectiveness in asthma due to immune suppressing effects.
- Sarcoidosis
- Pancreatic cancer
- Prevention of aortic aneurysm in people with Marfan syndrome and vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
- Multiple sclerosis
- Meibomian gland dysfunction
- Treatment of filariasis and onchocerciasis due to filariae and onchocercae (in general, harbouring endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria, doxycycline kills the bacteria, and (by removal of the endosymbiotes) the nematodes)
- New daily persistent headache
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Read more about this topic: Doxycycline
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