Evaluation of the effectiveness of doxycycline in the clinical course and improvement of outpatients with COVID-19

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Clinical Research Development Unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Hamadan University of Medical Science, Hamadan, Iran

2 Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Science, Hamadan, Iran

3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Science, Hamadan, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objective: The ambiguity and lack of consensus in both domestic (including national protocols) and international sources regarding the efficacy of doxycycline in improving clinical symptoms and preventing disease progression in patients with CORONAVIRUS Disease 2019 (Covid-19) led to the decision to conduct this study. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of doxycycline in the clinical course and improvement of outpatients with the disease..
Materials and Methods: The present clinical trial was conducted on 82 patients diagnosed with the disease (in accordance with the established clinical criteria) who presented at Shahid Beheshti Hospital during the years 2021-2022 and did not require hospitalization. The control group received the standard care and medication for patients with the disease. In addition to these care measures, the intervention group received doxycycline capsules at a dose of 100 mg twice daily for a duration of 10 days. The need for hospitalization, mortality, complete recovery, and the progression of clinical symptoms were monitored and compared for 30 days in both patient groups. For the purpose of comparing the disease outcomes based on nominal and ordinal categorical variables, the Chi-square test (Fisher's exact test) was utilized, while paired t-test was employed for the purpose of comparing quantitative variables.
Results: There were 41 patients in the intervention group and 37 patients in the control group with no statistically significant difference in terms of average age, gender, and clinical symptoms at the time of referral. Hospitalization rate was 8 cases (19.5%) in the intervention group and 9 cases (24.3%) in the control group (P=0.784). One month after treatment, 21 (56.8%) patients in the control group and 29 (70.7%) patients in the intervention group had complete recovery. In both groups, the percentage of arterial oxygen saturation increased over time in both groups and this increase was greater in the intervention group, the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0.001).
Conclusion: doxycycline can be effective in outpatients with covid-19 due to faster recovery and less need for hospitalization.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Rothan HA, Byrareddy SN. The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. Journal of Autoimmunity. 2020;109:102433.
  2. Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). International Journal of Surgery. 2020;76:71-6.
  3. Alsharif W, Qurashi A. Effectiveness of COVID-19 diagnosis and management tools: A review. Radiography. 2021;27(2):682-7.
  4. Sharma A, Ahmad Farouk I, Lal SK. COVID-19: A Review on the Novel Coronavirus Disease Evolution, Transmission, Detection, Control and Prevention. Viruses. 2021;13(2).
  5. Rai P, Kumar BK, Deekshit VK, Karunasagar I, Karunasagar I. Detection technologies and recent developments in the diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. Applied Microbiol Biotechnol. 2021;105(2):441-55.
  6. Singh H, Chauhan P, Singh J, Saurabh, Gautam C, Kakkar AK. Concomitant use of dexamethasone and tetracyclines: a potential therapeutic option for the management of severe COVID-19 infection? Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology. 2021;14(3):315-22.
  7. Malek AE, Granwehr BP, Kontoyiannis DP. Doxycycline as a potential partner of COVID-19 therapies. IDCases. 2020;21:e00864.
  8. Al-Kuraishy HM, Al-Gareeb AI, Alqarni M, Cruz-Martins N, El-Saber Batiha G. Pleiotropic effects of tetracyclines in the management of COVID-19: emerging perspectives. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2021;12:642822.
  9. Alam MM, Mahmud S, Rahman MM, Simpson J, Aggarwal S, Ahmed Z. Clinical Outcomes of Early Treatment With Doxycycline for 89 High-Risk COVID-19 Patients in Long-Term Care Facilities in New York. Cureus. 2020;12(8):e9658.
  10. Sodhi M, Etminan M. Therapeutic Potential for Tetracyclines in the Treatment of COVID-19. Pharmacotherapy. 2020;40(5):487-8.
  11. Al-Kuraishy HM, Al-Gareeb AI, Alqarni M, Cruz-Martins N, El-Saber Batiha G. Pleiotropic Effects of Tetracyclines in the Management of COVID-19: Emerging Perspectives. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2021;12:642822.
  12. Byrne JD, Shakur R, Collins JE, Becker S, Young CC, Boyce H, et al. Prophylaxis with tetracyclines in ARDS: Potential therapy for covid-19-induced ards? medRxiv. 2020:2020.07. 22.20154542.
  13. Fredeking TM, Zavala-Castro JE, González-Martínez P, Moguel-Rodríguez W, Sanchez EC, Foster MJ, et al. Dengue Patients Treated with Doxycycline Showed Lower Mortality Associated to a Reduction in IL-6 and TNF Levels. Recent Patents on Anti-Infective Drug Discovery .2015;10(1):51-8.
  14. Wang D, Hu B, Hu C, Zhu F, Liu X, Zhang J, et al. Clinical Characteristics of 138 Hospitalized Patients With 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia in Wuhan, China. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2020;323(11):1061-9.
  15. Castro JEZ, Vado-Solis I, Perez-Osorio C, Fredeking TM. Modulation of cytokine and cytokine receptor/antagonist by treatment with doxycycline and tetracycline in patients with dengue fever. Journal of Immunology Research. 2011;2011(1):370872.
  16. Di Caprio R, Lembo S, Di Costanzo L, Balato A, Monfrecola G. Anti‐inflammatory properties of low and high doxycycline doses: an in vitro study. Mediators of inflammation. 2015;2015(1):329418.
  17. Masters PS. The molecular biology of coronaviruses. Advances in Virus Research. 2006;66:193-292.
Daneshvar Medicine
Volume 32, Issue 6 - Serial Number 175
March and April 2025
Pages 1-13

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics