Abstract
The sudden emergence of SARS-CoV-2 at the end of last year and its subsequent attainment of pandemic proportions have not only paralyzed the healthcare system but also destabilized the world economy due to subdued human activity in the past few months. Scientists the world over have been fervently working on finding a cure for the viral infection. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are amongst the most popular medicines that are being considered as a counter to the SARS-CoV-2. However, the clinical trials of the drug both as a preventive for frontline healthcare professionals and as a cure for the infected have yielded mixed results. This is mainly due to the cardiotoxicity induced by the drug via QT prolongation when administered in high dosages. The prescription of the drug is further inadvisable if patients have been prescribed other QT prolonging drugs like azithromycin or have a known cardiac history. The authors have extensively studied literature on chloroquine mechanism of action and the successful use of nanocarriers as drug delivery vehicles against different viruses, malarial infections and in cancer therapy. The combination of nano-carrier and chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine is expected to overcome the limitations of the use of free chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine via increased drug efficacy and thus decreased chances of lethality arising from cardiotoxicity.<div><br></div>
Highlights
An outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia emerged in a local seafood market of Wuhan city, in the Hubei province of China on December 2019 have jeopardized the global healthcare infrastructure till date [1]
This pneumonia like disease previously known as Novel coronavirus (2019nCoV), have been officially renamed “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and as “COVID-19” by World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th February 2020
Till nanotechnology has been used in detection and drug delivery applications for the treatment of various diseases caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), herpes simplex viruses (HSV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), influenza A virus (H1N1), cytomegalovirus (CMV), NIPAH virus etc
Summary
An outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia emerged in a local seafood market of Wuhan city, in the Hubei province of China on December 2019 have jeopardized the global healthcare infrastructure till date [1]. This infection has progressed in a highly destructive manner with uncontrolled proliferation amongst the world populace irrespective of climate, race and age groups In this situation, it has become a challenge to produce effective and safe therapeutic drug(s) with known pharmacokinetics and optimal dosage, which can be used to treat or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections. The S protein of (SARS-CoV-2) uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) found in the cell membranes of the lungs, arteries, heart, kidneys and intestines, as the cellular receptor for the attachment of the virus [14,15,16]. The alteration of pH due to the influence of CQ/HCQ leads to dysfunction of enzymatic activity supporting post translational modification of the newly synthesized proteins of the virus This inhibits the entry of the virus into the lysosome and exosome release of virus particle from the infected host cell [22]. These two factors mediate deregulation of the local inflammatory responses of human body and is primarily responsible for the SARS-CoV-2 associated mortality [23,24]
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