Chiral switches of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: potential drugs to treat COVID-19
Therapeutic options in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are urgently needed. A keyword in these worldwide effortsis ‘repurposing’ – the development of approved antiviral drugs as candidates for COVID-19. Chloroquine (CQ) and its hydroxyl analog hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are showing preliminary inhibitory effects against COVID-19 and apparent efficacy in clinical studies. We propose a variant of the repurposing strategy: developing single enantiomers of these old racemic drugs. We call for urgently pursuing the chiral switches of HCQ and/or CQ for the treatment of COVID-19.