Effects of chloroquine on viral infections: an old drug against today's diseases

By Adrea Savarino, J. Boelaert, Antonio Cassone, Giancario Majori, R. Cauda. Lancet. Infectious Diseases (Print), 2003

1,214 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Chloroquine is a 9-aminoquinoline known since 1934. Apart from its well-known antimalarial effects, the drug has interesting biochemical properties that might be applied against some viral infections. Chloroquine exerts direct antiviral effects, inhibiting pH-dependent steps of the replication of several viruses including members of the flaviviruses, retroviruses, and coronaviruses. Its best-studied effects are those against HIV replication, which are being tested in clinical trials. Moreover, chloroquine has immunomodulatory effects, suppressing the production/release of tumour necrosis factor α and interleukin 6, which mediate the inflammatory complications of several viral diseases. We review the available information on the effects of chloroquine on viral infections, raising the question of whether this old drug may experience a revival in the clinical management of viral diseases such as AIDS and severe acute respiratory syndrome, which afflict mankind in the era of globalisation.

Subfields: Epidemiology, Infectious Diseases, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9ddfc64b30a014f9debcfa0960ddd425c81bd16d

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Citations in the corpus

• Screening of an FDA-Approved Compound Library Identifies Four Small-Molecule Inhibitors of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Replication in Cell Culture (2014, background): “CQ has also been reported to inhibit the replication of multiple flaviviruses, 287 influenza viruses, HIV (reviewed in (60)), Ebola virus (61), Nipah-Hendra virus (62), as well as 288 several coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV, in cell culture (51-55, 63, 64).”
• Virology, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, and Control of COVID-19 (2020, background): “Chloroquine has many interesting biochemical properties including antiviral effect [76].”
• A Review of SARS-CoV-2 and the Ongoing Clinical Trials (2020, background): “As a well-known antimalarial and anti-autoimmune agent, hydroxychloroquine can also block virus infection by increasing endosomal pH required for membrane fusion between the virus and the host cell [60] .”
• New insights on the antiviral effects of chloroquine against coronavirus: what to expect for COVID-19? (2020, background): “Indeed, in the mid-1990s, due to its tolerability, rare toxicity reports, inexpensive cost and immunomodulatory properties [11] , chloroquine repurposing was explored against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other viruses associated with inflammation and was found to be efficient in inhibiting”
• Immunology of COVID-19: Current State of the Science (2020, positive): “However, the application of CQ and HCQ to COVID-19 stems from their past use as antivirals (Savarino et al., 2003), including for SARSCoV-1 (Keyaerts et al., 2004; Vincent et al., 2005).”
• Pharmacologic Treatments for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Review. (2020, neutral): “(%) Supportive care NIV/HFNC: 10 (24); MV: 2 (5); ECMO: 2 (5); KRT: 3 (7) NIV: 13 (13); MV: 4 (4); ECMO: 3 (3); KRT: 9 (9) NIV: 15 (10.”
• The origin, transmission and clinical therapies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak – an update on the status (2020, background): “viruses [79], with a potent effect on SARS-CoV infection and spread [80].”
• In Vitro Antiviral Activity and Projection of Optimized Dosing Design of Hydroxychloroquine for the Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (2020, background): “Both hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have immunomodulatory effects and can suppress the increase of immune factors [29, 30].”
• The cytokine storm and COVID‐19 (2020, background): “MERS‐CoV infection was also reported to induce increased concentrations of IL‐15, IL‐17, IFN‐γ, and TNF‐α.42 Some studies have found that patients with severe COVID‐ 19 exhibit higher levels of IL‐2, IL‐6, IL‐7, IL‐10, IP‐10, MCP‐1, TNF‐α, macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha, and granulocyte‐CSF”
• Potential interventions for novel coronavirus in China: A systematic review (2020, methodology): “In addition, it had been used against viral infection.(90) Moreover, chloroquine was also found to be a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection through”
• A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 (2020, neutral): “In-vitro studies have suggested that chloroquine, an immunomodulant drug traditionally usedto treat malaria,is effective in reducingviralrep-lication in other infections, including the SARS-associated coronavirus (CoV) and MERS-CoV [2 – 4].”
• Current Status of Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Therapeutics, and Vaccines for Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (2020, background): “Previous studies determined the antiviral activity of chloroquine against SARS, MERS, HIV, Ebola, Hendra, and Nipah viruses in vitro [51-54].”