Hydroxychloroquine activates host antiviral innate immunity — ASN Events

Hydroxychloroquine activates host antiviral innate immunity (#25)

Tsung-Hsien Chang 1 , Li-Fong Wang 2 , You-Sheng Lin 1 , Chih-Shiang Yang 1 , Chia-Yi Yu 3 , Yi-Ling Lin 3
  1. Department of Medical Education and Research , Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  2. Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  3. Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is an antimalarial drug also used in treating autoimmune diseases. It is also an autophagosome-lysosome fusion inhibitor broadly used in autophagy pathway research. HCQ is a weak basic drug that accumulates in the acidic environment of cellular organelles to inhibit replication of different viruses by interfering with endosome/lysosome trafficking or viral protein maturation during virions maturation. We demonstrated that HCQ could inhibit four serotypes of dengue viruses (DENV1-4) infection in cells by immunofluorescence assays. RT-qPCR analysis of HCQ-treated cells showed induced expression of antiviral genes and cytokines such as interferon beta (IFNβ), IFN-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 3, C-X-C motif chemokine 10, melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5, mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS) and tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 3. The expression of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-12 p19, IL-12 p40 and tumor necrosis factor α were also induced by HCQ. Mechanistic study suggested that HCQ activated the innate immune signaling pathways of IFNβ, AP-1 and NFκB via phosphorylation of IFN regulatory factor 3 and c-Jun and by increasing NFκB p65 subunit nuclear translocation. Blocking type I IFN by antibody targeting IFN receptor or by inhibiting MAVS, TBK1 and IKKε signaling reduced the efficiency of HCQ against DENV-2 infection. These results reveal an emerging role of HCQ activating the host innate immunity against virus infection.