Brusellosis and Its Treatment: Experiment with Doxycycline

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The activities of therapeutic regimens with ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and levofloxacin (14 days, 40 mg/kg once a day) alone or in combination with doxycycline (14 days, 40 mg/kg twice a day) against chronic infection with Brucella melitensis were assessed in 200 mice. Doxycycline alone or in combination with ciprofloxacin significantly reduced the infection till 135 days post-infection (p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively). In addition, doxycycline was more effective than ofloxacin 135 days post-infection (p<0.05). However, quinolone-doxycycline treatment revealed significant additive effect because they reduced the splenic CFU from the day 45 post-infection, whereas, the treatment with doxycycline alone reduced the splenic CFU from the day 90 post-infection.
Keywords: Antibiotic combinations, Brucella melitensis, chronic disease.

Introduction
Brucellosis remains the most common and serious problem in some parts of the world.1 Many of Brucella species could infect animals through direct contact. Human could be infected when exposed to B. abortus, B. melitensis, or B. suis. In humans, the exhausting disease could become, over time, a chronic disease that affects several organs. Ingestion of unpasteurized dairy products, as well as occupational exposure to infected animals, are the major causes of brucellosis. In addition, Ariza et al. indicated that some species of Brucella could be used in a bioterrorist attack.2
In ruminants, no symptoms were seen after the first abortion; but these infected animals could develop a chronic disease and become chronic carriers, and during subsequent pregnancies, Brucella could be found in milk and uterine discharges of these carriers.3
Undulant fever, in human, recovers completely within three to twe...

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...odel. In order to do this, we have evaluated the progress of infection for 225 days using various treatments.
Only ofloxacin given orally for 14 days showed a significant reduction of the splenic infection at 90 days after infection; whereas, doxycycline was more effective than all quinolones and almost completely eradicates the infection 135 days after infection.
On another hand, doxycycline-quinolone combinations were more effective than the treatment with doxycycline alone since they could significantly reduce the splenic infection from the day 45 post-infection. Unfortunately, these combinations could not eradicate completely the chronic infection.

Conclusion
In conclusion, short-term treatment with doxycycline was more effective than the treatment with quinolones. In addition, doxycycline-quinolones combinations were slightly more effective than doxycycline.

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