Would Repurposing Minocycline Alleviate Neurologic Manifestations of COVID-19?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiologic agent of COVID-19 pandemic (Zhu et al., 2020). SARS-CoV-2 causes systemic infection varying in severity from asymptomatic, to mild (fever, cough, loss of smell and taste, leg pain, headache, diarrhea, fatigue), to multi-organ dysfunction/failure (Chen N. et al., 2020). Acute lung injury is the hallmark of COVID-19 and a subset of patients develop pneumonia and severe dyspnea requiring ICU admission. Most patients in critical condition have advanced age and pre-existing hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, obesity, and/or chronic lung conditions (Chen N. et al., 2020; Sharma et al., 2020b). Dyspnea and saturation of 90% or less despite oxygen supplementation is a major risk factor for fatal outcomes (Xie et al., 2020).