Host-microbe-drug triad: Role of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 treatment-focus on inflammatory cytokine inhibition

Abstract

The threat caused by the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus pandemic has thrown everyone into a panic mode including scientists, medical practitioners and pharmaceutical firms trying to discover a drug for its treatment. This has seen many clinical studies registered within the past few months. This has called for repositioning of some drugs in order to manage the crisis with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine being in the front line. The two have been with us over 50 years and have been demonstrated to have strong antiviral activities. Studies have shown that Covid-19 induces an inflammatory response while chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine induce an anti-inflammatory response in the body. Here, we review available information on the interaction between Covid-19 and the innate immune systems of the hosts, the type of inflammatory responses induced by Covid-19 and the anti-inflammatory response conferred by the CQ and HCQ in a bid to understand if there is a justifiable link between the two to support the latter being used as a treatment.