Hydroxychloroquine Inhibits the Trained Innate Immune Response to Interferons.

Rother, Nils; Yanginlar, Cansu; Lindeboom, Rik G H; Bekkering, Siroon; van Leent, Mandy M T; Buijsers, Baranca; Jonkman, Inge; de Graaf, Mark et al. · Cell Rep Med · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Hydroxychloroquine is being investigated for a potential prophylactic effect in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, but its mechanism of action is poorly understood. Circulating leukocytes from the blood of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients show increased responses to Toll-like receptor ligands, suggestive of trained immunity. By analyzing interferon responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors conditioned with heat-killed <i>Candida</i>, trained innate immunity can be modeled <i>in vitro</i>. In this model, hydroxychloroquine inhibits the responsiveness of these innate immune cells to virus-like stimuli and interferons. This is associated with a suppression of histone 3 lysine 27 acetylation and histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation of inflammation-related genes, changes in the cellular lipidome, and decreased expression of interferon-stimulated genes. Our findings indicate that hydroxychloroquine inhibits trained immunity <i>in vitro</i>, which may not be beneficial for the antiviral innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients.

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