Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Bioengineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. Agneta Simionescu
Committee Member
Dr. Dan Simionescu
Committee Member
Dr. Alexey Vertegel
Committee Member
Dr. Congyue Peng
Abstract
COVID-19 is an infectious disease which has brought about a global pandemic, killed over 6.9 million and cripped the economy worldwide. COVID-19 immuno-pathogenesis involves viral driven damage and a prolific host inflammatory response. Without treatment, acute lung injury, multiple organ failure and death could take place. Doxycycline is an FDA-approved antibiotic with anti-viral, anti-inflammatory properties and minimal side effects making the drug a great candidate as a prophylactic treatment for COVID-19-like infection and other inflammatory related diseases. Our research group has developed (1) a novel nanoparticle-based drug delivery system capable of targeting damaged elastin in lungs and delivering Doxycycline to damaged lungs. (2) a murine model mimicking COVID-19 acute lung inflammation which is used to test out our drug delivery system. Our results demonstrate that prophylactic treatment of Doxycycline nanoparticles protects the integrity of epithelial and endothelial barrier and significantly reduces (i) inflammatory cell recruitment to lung tissue, (ii) proinflammatory cytokine secretion, thus, reduce inflammation. The long-term goal is to utilize this novel drug delivery system to provide treatment for the COVID-19 infection and other inflammatory diseases.
Recommended Citation
Krisanarungson, Pantrika, "Doxycycline as Prophylactic Treatment for Severe COVID-19 Induced Symptom Prevention and Other Inflammatory Diseases" (2026). All Dissertations. 4200.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4200