Could Chloroquine Treat Coronavirus? The following essay is reprinted
with permission from The ConversationThe Conversation, an online
publication covering the latest research.To get more news about
chloroquine phosphate, you can visit shine news official website.
An
Arizona man died, and his wife was hospitalized, after taking a form of
chloroquine, which President Trump has touted as an effective treatment
for COVID-19. The couple decided to self-medicate with chloroquine
phosphate, which they had on hand to kill parasites in their fish, after
hearing the president describe the drug as a “game changer.” Dr.
Anthony Fauci, head of NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and
Infectious Diseases, quickly corrected the statement, explaining that
Trump’s comments were based on anecdotes and not a controlled clinical
trial.I am a medicinal chemist who specializes in discovery and
development of antiviral drugs, and I have been actively working on
coronaviruses for seven years.
However, because I am a scientist and
I deal in facts and evidence-based medicine, I am concerned about the
sweeping statements the president has been making regarding the use of
chloroquine or the closely related hydroxychloroquine, both antimalarial
drugs, as cures for COVID-19. So let’s examine the facts.These are both
FDA-approved antimalarial drugs that have been in use for many years.
Chloroquine was originally developed in 1934 at the pharmaceutical
company Bayer and used in World War II to prevent malaria. Although the
FDA has not approved its use for these conditions, both chloroquine and
hydroxychloroquine are also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and
lupus. After the initial outbreak of MERS in 2012, scientists conducted
random screens of thousands of approved drugs to identify one that might
block MERS infection.
Several drugs, including chloroquine, showed
the ability to block coronaviruses from infecting cells in vitro. But
these drugs were not extensively pursued because ultimately they did not
show enough activity to be considered further. When the new coronavirus
appeared, many drugs that had shown some initial promise against the
related coronaviruses MERS and SARS were at the top of the list as
worthy of further evaluation as possible treatments.So the science is
real, and a number of labs around the world are now investigating these
drugs and testing them in clinical trials in the U.S., France and China.
But so far, there is no consensus about whether the drugs are safe and
effective for treating COVID-19, as it is still very early in the
testing process. It is still unclear how the chloroquines (or any
antimalarial drug) would work against COVID-19, which is a virus.
Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites that are spread by mosquitoes,
whereas COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Viral infections
and parasitic infections are very different, and so scientists wouldn’t
expect what works for one to work for the other. It has been suggested
that the chloroquines can change the acidity at the surface of the cell,
thereby preventing the virus from infecting it. It’s also possible
chloroquines help activate the immune response. One study that was just
published tested hydroxychloroquine in combination with an antibacterial
drug (azithromycin), which worked better to stop the spread of the
infection than hydroxychloroquine alone. However it’s only one
preliminary study that was done on a limited test group.
The Wall