Reply to Martinez-Garcia et al. and to Wang et al

• Published in: American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine Vol. 208; no. 10; pp. 1144 - 1145
• Main Authors: Allinson, James P, Vlies, Ben H, Brill, Simon E, Law, Martin, Burnside, Girvan, Finney, Lydia J, Alves-Moreira, Luana, Calverley, Peter M A, Walker, Paul P, Wedzicha, Jadwiga A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Thoracic Society 15.11.2023
• Subjects: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Correspondence; Drug therapy; Lung diseases; Medical research; Research methodology
• ISSN: 1073-449X; 1535-4970; 1535-4970
• DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202309-1604LE

Allinson et al respond to comments on their article on long-term doxycycline therapy for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They state that by design, they enriched their study sample for those with histories of exacerbations, and infection is recognized as a major cause of such exacerbations. Therefore, the bacteriostatic action of doxycycline is a probable mechanism of action, as they discuss. Delineating the mechanism responsible is important. Microbial analyses of sputum collected during this clinical trial were not a prespecified trial outcome, so they were not reported as such. Sputum samples were not available from all study participants, but the available samples are the subject of their ongoing research.