Doxycycline – only an antibiotic?

Doxycycline is a synthetic antibiotic of the Tetracycline family with probably the highest number of non-antibiotic properties. Clinically developed in the early 1960s, it was approved by the FDA in 1967 (1). As an antibiotic, its use in the treatment of bacterial pneumonia, acne, chlamydial infections, Lyme disease, cholera, typhus and syphilis is already well established. However, its use in the treatment of other infectious and non-infectious conditions is not very well known. It is amazing to realize that this rather conventional and simple salt is equipped with such a wide plethora of actions. In this review, we attempt to address the non-antibiotic properties of Doxycycline in a serial manner.