Long term use of doxycycline is found helping improve lung function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, revealed an Indian review. The review led by Bhattacharya P and colleagues to assess the tolerability and impact of MMP inhibitor doxycycline in COPD, found that doxycycline demonstrated significant reduction in MMP-9 production and concomitant elastin degradation to improve lung function in COPD patients. The researchers analysed 88 patients, in which 34 were treated without doxycycline and 54 with or add-on long-term dosage for 12 months. The findings reportedly indicated significant improvement at 6 and 12 months for lung function parameters and that the universal health and well-being of the patients improved with an overall 26.69 percent reduction in exacerbations. Highlighting the importance of the research, the authors of the study said that these findings indicated that doxycycline treatment for over a year seems to improve the lung function, health status and reduce exacerbations in COPD significantly.