PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Delvecchio, Rodrigo
AU  - Higa, Luiza M
AU  - Pezzuto, Paula
AU  - Valadão, Ana Luiza
AU  - Garcez, Patrícia P
AU  - Monteiro, Fábio L
AU  - Loiola, Erick C.
AU  - Rehen, Stevens
AU  - Campanati, Loraine
AU  - de Aguiar, Renato Santana
AU  - Tanuri, Amilcar
TI  - Chloroquine inhibits Zika Virus infection in different cellular models
AID  - 10.1101/051268
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 051268
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/02/051268.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/02/051268.full
AB  - Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in utero might lead to microcephaly and other congenital defects. In adults, cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome and meningoencephalitis associated with ZIKV infection have been reported, and no specific therapy is available so far. There is urgency for the discovery of antiviral agents capable of inhibiting viral replication and its deleterious effects. Chloroquine is widely administered as an antimalarial drug, anti-inflammatory agent, and it also shows antiviral activity against several viruses. Here we show that chloroquine exhibits antiviral activity against ZIKV in VERO, human brain microvascular endothelial, and neural stem cells. We demonstrated in vitro that chloroquine reduces the number of ZIKV-infected cells, virus production and cell death promoted by ZIKV infection without cytotoxic effects. Our results suggest that chloroquine is a promising candidate for ZIKV clinical trials, since it is already approved for clinical use and can be safely administered to pregnant woman.