Chloroquine to Treat Corona Virus?

There has been a lot of video claims that is being circulated around lately that anti-malarial drug already showing resistance to malaria can now be used  instead  to treat deadly corona virus pandemic

This has caused death instead. Read here:

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/03/22/nigeria-reports-chloroquine-poisonings-after-trump-says-it-treats-covid-19/

Do NOT use any drug that has not been tested or approved and try it as a  home remedy for SARS-CoV2 (Covid19).

It takes a minimum of 10 years for any drug to be  approved after undergoing various phrases of testing from lab studies to phrase 1, 2, 3 clinical trials followed continuously by pharmacovigilance even approval and license has been given.

Granted chloroquine has already been well studied and evaluated against malaria, and has long since been licensed and marketed as an antimalarial drug.

We already know the pharmacodynamics of chloroquine on malarial parasites by its inactivation of their cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6), the dose, duration and the toxicity levels

This need not be studied again to shorten the time for chloroquine to be used.

But we have completely no data on its mechanisms on the coronavirus and the counter effects on the virus against the drug although some have postulated, but  those explanation  do not seem plausible to me from my understanding in molecular pharmacology  

This needs to be studied and evaluated first in lab studies and in multiple clinical trials before this therapeutic regimen can be safely trusted 

Even if chloroquine is effective, we do not know at what dose to give it, and the duration to be given? We have no clue

Given at under dose, it may cause the corona virus to mutate into a very virulent strain which the body immunological defense may no longer be able to handle.

Given at high dose it can be fatal. The lethal dose for chloroquine has been recorded at 4 – 5 g

Ref  : https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC1678465&blobtype=pdf

Currently our own human immune system is being challenged by this virus, and it is doing a very, very good job with many having recovered from this infection on their own

Let our own immune system endowed to us by Nature to do this job for us, and it is now doing this very effectively with very low mortality ratio, increasing recovery rates compared to over 15 times the rate of new infections.

This recovery ratios speaks volumes how Nature is currently doing its job for us.

The corona virus is already been defied by our own immune system, and in response,  the virus too is trying to fight back by its own genetic mutation into more hardier strain as evidenced by the previous milder SARS CoV to the current more defiant Covid-19 strain  

Take  chloroquine as a clear example how the Plasmodium spp (malarial parasites) mutated against this antimalarial drug. Chloroquine is no more effective against malaria as much as corona virus is going to mutate against it

But if we start to challenge it further with unapproved chloroquine or its derivatives, what happens is the virus is being attacked by both sides – our own immune system on one side -  which is already doing a very noble job for us, and the drug on the opposite side.

This is similar to the misuse of antibiotics causing antibiotics resistant superbugs to emerge

This same scenario will surface with the present Covid-19 if we challenge it with an under-dose of chloroquine. 

Just do NOT put yourself between the Devil and the deep blue sea with an agent yet to be evaluated by large-scale clinical trials before approval.

The virus can undergo speciation by Natural Selection very rapidly due to it very simple genomic chain (< 3,000 base) and they can turn very, very nasty after that after being  confronted on both sides – one by our own immunological system and the other some drugs for which we have no understanding   its mode of action

We can see this very clearly with SARS CoV that changed into Covid-19 after apparently lying very low for 16 years after being challenged by our collective human immunological defenses passed on from person-to-person by immune memory cells

If we have studied and understand evolutionary biology or evolutionary medicine we see how life evolved so rapidly during the Cambrian Radiation soon after the first RNA chemistry came into place followed by very rapid changes in the mutation of DNA in the bacteria into higher species due to very rapid environmental challenges 3,000 million years ago

Respect that observation.  It is purposely premeditated there by the Designer.

Respect Him (God) , and  the virus He created, and  do not try to be smarter than the Designer  by using unapproved chloroquine as some home remedy to challenge a highly potential genetic mutation

We have already leant our lesson using all kinds of antibiotics to fight bacterial infections causing the bacteria to mutate into superbugs for which increasing generations of new anti-bacteria has no effect

Ignore Trump.  He is fickle-minded and keeps changing his words. He is a politician without any direction, let alone any clue about evolutionary biology, virology, medicine or medical sciences  

Trust me with my down-to-earth layman explanation reachable to all.

Hope this helps

Lim jb