ArticleMicrobes and infection
Chloroquine paradox may cause more damage than help fight COVID-19.
Article in Microbes and infection. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding the psychiatric symptoms of COVID-19: a meta-analysis of studies assessing psychiatric symptoms in Chinese patients with and survivors of COVID-19 and SARS by using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Copper(II) benzyloxychalcone analogues as new potential metallodrugs against SARS-CoV-2 replication.The Journal of general virology · 2026Article
- Efficacy of Ivermectin, Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine, and Azithromycin in Managing COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Phase III Clinical Trials.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Medicines and illusions in the fight against COVID-19 in Brazil.Ethics, medicine, and public health · 2021Article
- The find of COVID-19 vaccine: Challenges and opportunities.Journal of infection and public health · 2021Review
- A comparative analysis of remdesivir and other repurposed antivirals against SARS-CoV-2.EMBO molecular medicine · 2021Review
- The eye as the discrete but defensible portal of coronavirus infection.The ocular surface · 2021Review
- Both Chloroquine and Lopinavir/Ritonavir Are Ineffective for COVID-19 Treatment and Combined Worsen the Pathology: A Single-Center Experience with Severely Ill Patients.BioMed research international · 2021Article
- Potential Anti-Coronavirus Agents and the Pharmacologic Mechanisms.Drug design, development and therapy · 2021Review
- Exploring Sodium Glucose Co-Transporter-2 (SGLT2) Inhibitors for Organ Protection in COVID-19.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Review
- Targeting the Immune System for Pulmonary Inflammation and Cardiovascular Complications in COVID-19 Patients.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Review
- COVID-19: Rational discovery of the therapeutic potential of Melatonin as a SARS-CoV-2 main Protease Inhibitor.International journal of medical sciences · 2020Article
- Molecular mechanisms and pharmacological interventions in the replication cycle of human coronaviruses.Genetics and molecular biology · 2020Article
- Antiviral drugs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection triggering the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic.Tzu chi medical journalReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the most recent health care crisis without specific prophylactic or therapeutic drugs. Antimalarial drug chloroquine (CHL) and its safer derivative hydroxychloroquine (HCHL) have been proposed to be repurposed to treat SARS coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19. CHL/HCHL have anti-inflammatory activity and are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and lupus. Although, CHL/HCHL have an anti-viral activity against several viruses in cell-cultures, the anti-viral activity in-vivo is questionable. Repurposing of CHL/HCHL to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection is appealing. However, there is empirical evidence from animal studies with other viruses suggesting that CHL/HCHL may have an untoward paradoxical effect. One thus cannot exclude the possibility that CHL may increase the severity of the disease and prove deleterious both for the patients and public health efforts to contain the highly contagious and explosive spread of SARS-CoV-2.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.