On Nov. 24, 2020, preclinical study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested FDA-approved tetracycline-based antibiotics may slow infection and reduce neurological problems. Researchers used a variety of advanced drug screening techniques to test out more than 10,000 compounds in search of a cure.

To their surprise, they found that the widely used antibiotic methacycline was effective at preventing brain infections and reducing neurological problems associated with the virus in mice.