I thought I'd repost this from Lou Pagnucco previous post since its the best biochemical evidence for HCQ whilst excluding many other possiblities. Also for my GP brother who may be joining our forum.
Paper just published in Nature examines anti-Covid targets that appear promising
for drug repurposing. It includes several cell culture tests including effectiveness at
preventing viral replication and toxicity. My first impression is that HCQ looks quite
good, and that there may be a couple of repurposed drugs that may be even better.
Figures 6 (page 13) and 8 (page 25) appear to indicate HCQ has a good anti-viral/toxicity
profile - and that the drug designated PB28 may be the best.
The paper and URL(pdf) --
(Accelerated Article Preview)
A SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction map reveals targets for drug repurposing
https://www.nature.com/article…-020-2286-9_reference.pdf
An interesting excerpt (page 4) --
"PB28, zotatifin, and hydroxychloroquine all decreased the detection of the
viral NP protein even in this single cycle assay, indicating the antiviral
effect occurs before viral egress from the cell (Fig. 6e). Furthermore, all
three molecules inhibited NP expression when added up to 4 hours post-infection,
after viral entry has occurred. Thus, these molecules seem to exert their
antiviral effect during viral replication."