Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Mar 18:6:16.
doi: 10.1038/s41421-020-0156-0. eCollection 2020.

Hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, is effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro

Jia Liu #  1 , Ruiyuan Cao #  2 , Mingyue Xu #  1   3 , Xi Wang  1 , Huanyu Zhang  1   3 , Hengrui Hu  1   3 , Yufeng Li  1   3 , Zhihong Hu  1 , Wu Zhong  2 , Manli Wang  1
Affiliations

Hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, is effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro

Jia Liu et al. Cell Discov. .
No abstract available

Keywords: Autophagy; Transcription.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Comparative antiviral efficacy and mechanism of action of CQ and HCQ against SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro.
a Cytotoxicity and antiviral activities of CQ and HCQ. The cytotoxicity of the two drugs in Vero E6 cells was determined by CCK-8 assays. Vero E6 cells were treated with different doses of either compound or with PBS in the controls for 1 h and then infected with SARS-CoV-2 at MOIs of 0.01, 0.02, 0.2, and 0.8. The virus yield in the cell supernatant was quantified by qRT-PCR at 48 h p.i. Y-axis represents the mean of percent inhibition normalized to the PBS group. The experiments were repeated twice. b, c Mechanism of CQ and HCQ in inhibiting virus entry. Vero E6 cells were treated with CQ or HCQ (50 μM) for 1 h, followed by virus binding (MOI = 10) at 4 °C for 1 h. Then the unbound virions were removed, and the cells were further supplemented with fresh drug-containing medium at 37 °C for 90 min before being fixed and stained with IFA using anti-NP antibody for virions (red) and antibodies against EEA1 for EEs (green) or LAMP1 for ELs (green). The nuclei (blue) were stained with Hoechst dye. The portion of virions that co-localized with EEs or ELs in each group (n > 30 cells) was quantified and is shown in b. Representative confocal microscopic images of viral particles (red), EEA1+ EEs (green), or LAMP1+ ELs (green) in each group are displayed in c. The enlarged images in the boxes indicate a single vesicle-containing virion. The arrows indicated the abnormally enlarged vesicles. Bars, 5 μm. Statistical analysis was performed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with GraphPad Prism (F = 102.8, df = 5,182, ***P < 0.001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Wang M, et al. Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro. Cell Res. 2020;30:269–271. doi: 10.1038/s41422-020-0282-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Holshue ML, et al. First case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001191. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weniger H. Review of side effects and toxicity of chloroquine. Bull. World Health. 1979;79:906.
    1. McChesney EW. Animal toxicity and pharmacokinetics of hydroxychloroquine sulfate. Am. J. Med. 1983;75:11–18. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(83)91265-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mauthe M, et al. Chloroquine inhibits autophagic flux by decreasing autophagosome-lysosome fusion. Autophagy. 2018;14:1435–1455. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2018.1474314. - DOI - PMC - PubMed