Abstract

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW: USE OF CHLOROQUINE AND HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE IN COVID-19

Ashwini A. Bachhav*, Satish A. Ahire, Amruta M. Amritkar, Rajendra K. Pawar, Dr. Nitin N. Hire

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Abstract

Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine have been used in the treatment of various diseases like lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, malaria, amebiasis that is occurring outside the intestines, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus erythematosus for more than 70 years. On 11 of march in the afternoon World Health Organization (WHO) declared that covid-19 was a pandemic disease and they also declared that already the number of cases outside China was increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled. But at that time no such medical treatments were available for covid-19. So, in this emergency, the only option available the use of existing medications. This systematic review aims to summarize the chemical structure, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, and available evidence regarding the role of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in treating coronavirus infection. In this review, we discuss the available evidence for the use of chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) against COVID-19. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine both have unusual pharmacokinetic properties with enormous apparent volumes of distribution (chloroquine > hydroxychloroquine) and very slow elimination from the body. There is theoretical, experimental, preclinical, and clinical evidence of the effectiveness of chloroquine in patients affected with COVID-19. There is adequate evidence of drug safety from the long-time clinical use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in covid-19.

Keywords: Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine, COVID-19, pharmacokinetics, safety, efficacy.