A well-known drug used to prevent and treat malaria has been identified as a potential treatment for Zika virus infections. The drug, chloroquine (CQ), has long been used to treat malaria and has also been prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other autoimmune disorders. It has been shown to be safe to take during pregnancy, which is an important factor in Zika treatments. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.
Zika virus, a member of the Flaviviridae family of viruses, is transmitted by mosquitos or ticks to humans. Infection in adults causes mild to moderate flu-like symptoms such as headache, fever, and muscle aches. Some children of infected pregnant women are born with severe microcephaly which is by far the most disturbing side-effect of Zika infections.
The researchers studied the impact of CQ on human fetal neural progenitor cells (NPCs), known to be the target of Zika infection. It was shown that treatment of cultured NPCs with CQ efficiently reduced Zika infection in vitro. Mouse models were used to examine the effectiveness of CQ treatment in vivo and demonstrated that CQ inhibits Zika infection in pregnant SJL mice and significantly reduces vertical transmission.
"Chloroquine has a long history of successfully treating malaria, and there are no reports of it causing birth defects," says Terskikh, Alexey Terskikh, Ph.D., associate professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP). "Additional studies are certainly needed to determine the precise details of how it works. But given its low cost, availability and safety history further study in a clinical trial to test its effectiveness against Zika virus in humans is merited."