What is it about?
Chloroquine is a drug used to treat Malaria. Chloroquine was also found to block SARS-CoV-2 infection of the kidney cell line Vero, which is frequently used to study virus infections, and has thus been repurposed for COVID-19 therapy. This paper shows that chloroquine does not block SARS-CoV-2 infection of the lung cell line Calu-3 and that lack of inhibition is associated with SARS-CoV-2 activation by the cellular protease TMPRSS2. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 actvation in Vero cells depends on the chloroquine sensitive protease cathepsin L while viral activation in lung cells is mediated by the chloroquine insensitive protease TMPRSS2. These results indicate that chloroquine and the closely related drug hydroxychloroquine should not be used for COVID-19 therapy.
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Why is it important?
The research is important because it shows that chloroquine does not inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection of lung cells, suggesting that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine should not be used for COVID-19 therapy.
Perspectives
Our research highlights that lung-derived cell lines should be employed to study whether compounds inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Professor Stefan Pöhlmann
German Primate Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Chloroquine does not inhibit infection of human lung cells with SARS-CoV-2, Nature, July 2020, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2575-3.
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