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
Review
. 2021 Apr 10;17(6):1538-1546.
doi: 10.7150/ijbs.59547. eCollection 2021.

Hydroxychloroquine/Chloroquine as Therapeutics for COVID-19: Truth under the Mystery

Yao Chen  1 , Mei-Xiu Li  1 , Guo-Dong Lu  2 , Han-Ming Shen  3   4 , Jing Zhou  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Hydroxychloroquine/Chloroquine as Therapeutics for COVID-19: Truth under the Mystery

Yao Chen et al. Int J Biol Sci. .

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly evolved into a global pandemic. One major challenge in the battle against this deadly disease is to find effective therapy. Due to the availability and proven clinical record of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ) in various human diseases, there have been enormous efforts in repurposing these two drugs as therapeutics for COVID-19. To date, substantial amount of work at cellular, animal models and clinical trials have been performed to verify their therapeutic potential against COVID-19. However, neither lab-based studies nor clinical trials have provided consistent and convincing evidence to support the therapeutic value of HCQ/CQ in the treatment of COVID-19. In this mini review we provide a systematic summary on this important topic and aim to reveal some truth covered by the mystery regarding the therapeutic value of HCQ/CQ in COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; CQ; HCQ; SARS-CoV-2; clinical trials; therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of SARS-CoV-2 attachment, entry, RNA release and synthesis, and virus assembly and release in the extracellular space. The endocytic pathway plays a critical role in the entry and replication of SARS-CoV-2 and serves as target for the potential therapeutic effects of HCQ/CQ in COVID-19.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Yang N, Shen HM. Targeting the Endocytic Pathway and Autophagy Process as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy in COVID-19. Int J Biol Sci. 2020;16:1724–31. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sun J, Chen Y, Fan X, Wang X, Han Q, Liu Z. Advances in the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. Postgraduate Medicine. 2020;132:604–13. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cirino G, Ahluwalia A. The many mechanisms of action of Chloroquine: to use or not to use (in COVID-19) that is the question. Br J Pharmacol. 2020;177:3361–2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Serafin MB, Bottega A, Foletto VS, da Rosa TF, Horner A, Horner R. Drug repositioning is an alternative for the treatment of coronavirus COVID-19. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020;55:105969. - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Wilde AH, Jochmans D, Posthuma CC, Zevenhoven-Dobbe JC, van Nieuwkoop S, Bestebroer TM. et al. Screening of an FDA-approved compound library identifies four small-molecule inhibitors of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus replication in cell culture. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2014;58:4875–84. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types