Prophylactic Use of Chloroquine May Impair Innate Immune System Response against SARS-Cov-2

In the last twenty years, betacoronaviruses have caused three global health-threatening diseases, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002, MiddleEast Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 and recently, a novel coronavirus-induced pneumonia, which was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February, 2020. A serious outcome of COVID-19 in some patients is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) that may be fatal.1,2 Given the severity of COVID-19, a desperate global research effort is underway to identify effective antiviral therapies.