COVID-19 and antimalarials. Have we been doing it wrong all along?

ABSTRACT

In the context of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, associations of drugs which interfere with specific steps of the viral infectious cycle are currently being exploited as therapeutic strategies since a specific treatment by vaccination is still unavailable. A widespread association of repurposed agents is the combination of the antimalarial drug Hydroxychloroquine and the macrolide antibiotic Azithromycin in the setting of clinical trials. But a closer analysis of their mechanism of action suggests that their concomitant administration may be impractical, and this is supported by experimental data with other agents of the same classes. However a sequential administration of the lysosomotropic antimalarial with the addition of the macrolide proton pump inhibitor after the first has reached a certain threshold could better exploit their antiviral potential.