Hydroxychloroquine as post-exposure prophylaxis for Covid-19: Why simple data analysis can lead to the wrong conclusions from well-designed studies
Juan M Luco
Trends in Medicine, doi:10.15761/tim.1000268
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ), also known as antimalarial drugs, are widely used to treat systemic autoimmune diseases and have been increasingly recognized in many other diseases in addition to malaria. Thus, they have shown to display various biological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, antiviral, and antineoplastic activities [6] [7] [8] . Concerning their antiviral properties, very recently, Pastick et al. [9] reported an overview of HCQ and CQ and their pharmacology and the possible mechanisms of action against SARS-CoV-2. Although there is no clinically approved antiviral drug available against COVID-19, up to date, HCQ is perhaps the therapeutic option more studied than any other potential COVID-19 drug [10] . Several authors have addressed the clinical effectiveness and incidence of HCQ toxicity when administrated to prevent and treat COVID-19. On this and other topics, a comprehensive study has been reported recently [11] .
Consent for publication Not applicable.
Conflict of interest The author declares no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.
References
Amawi, Deiab, Aljabali, Dua, Tambuwala, COVID-19 pandemic: an overview of epidemiology, parthenogenesis, diagnostics and potential vaccines and therapeutics, Ther Deliv
Amrhein, Greenland, Mcshane, Scientists rise up against statistical significance, Nature
Ben-Zvi, Kivity, Langevitz, Shoenfeld, Hydroxychloroquine: From Malaria to Autoimmunity, Clin Rev Allergy Immunol
Bhattacharya, Chowdhury, Mukherjee, Nandi, Kulshrestha, Pre-exposure Hydroxychloroquine use is associated with reduced COVID19 risk in healthcare workers, International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
Boulware, Pullen, Bangdiwala, Pastick, Lofgren, A randomized trial of hydroxychloroquine as postexposure prophylaxis for covid-19, N Engl J Med
Brown, Ertl, Lewis, Luksch, Reker, Artificial intelligence in chemistry and drug design, Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design
Chiriboga, Gender differences in predictors of body weight and body weight change in healthy adults, Obesity
Cohen, Hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of covid-19-Searching for evidence, N Engl J Med
Czeisler, Lane, Petrosky, Wiley, Christensen, Mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic-united states, MMWR
Dhibar, Arora, Kakkar, Singla, Mohindra, Post-exposure prophylaxis with hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of COVID-19, a myth or a reality? The PEP-CQ Study, Int J Antimicrob Agents
Ebrahim, Sohani, Montoya, Agarwal, Thorlund, Reanalyses of randomized clinical trial data, JAMA
Goenka, Afzalpurkar, Goenka, Das, Mukherjee, Seroprevalence of COVID-19 amongst health care workers in a tertiary care hospital of a metropolitan city from India, J Assoc Physicians India
Hashem, Alghamdi, Algaissi, Alshehri, Bukhari, Therapeutic use of chloroquine and hydroxy-chloroquine quine in COVID-19 and other viral infections: A narrative review, Travel Med Infect Dis
Hsiehchen, Espinoza, Hsieh, Deficiencies in the designs and interventions of COVID-19 clinical trials, Med (N Y)
Huang, Wang, Li, Ren, Zhao, Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Lancet
Lu, Zhao, Li, Niu, Yang, Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: Implications for virus origins and receptor binding, Lancet
Luco, Marchevsky, QSAR studies on blood-brain barrier permeation, Current Computer-Aided Drug Design
Luco, Prediction of the brain-blood distribution of a large set of drugs from structurally derived descriptors using partial least-squares (PLS) modeling, Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences
Mantel, The detection of disease clustering and a generalized regression approach, Cancer Research
Marengoni, Angleman, Melis, Mangialasche, Karp, Aging with multimorbidity: A systematic review of the literature, Ageing Research Reviews
Mathai, Behera, Hande, Hydroxychloroquine as Pre-exposure prophylaxis against COVID 19 in health care workers: A single center experience, J Mar Med Soc
Nittari, Pallotta, Amenta, Tayebati, Current pharmacological treatments for SARS-COV-2: A narrative review, European Journal of Pharmacology
Ortiz-Prado, Simbaña-Rivera, Gomez-Barreno, Rubio-Neira, Guaman, Clinical, molecular, and epidemiological characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a comprehensive literature review, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Paolanti, Frontoni, Multidisciplinary Pattern Recognition applications: A review, Computer Science Review
Pastick, Okafor, Wang, Lofgren, Skipper, Review: Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine for Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), Open Forum Infectious Diseases
Rogliani, Sforza, Calzetta, The impact of comorbidities on severe asthma, Curr Opin Pulm Med
Saidi, Independent component analysis of microarray data in the study of endometrial cancer, Oncogene
Solomon, Lee, Chloroquine and its analogs: A new promise of an old drug for effective and safe cancer therapies, European Journal of Pharmacology
Ward, Hierarchical grouping to optimize an objective function, J Am Stat Assoc
Watanabe, Efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine as Prophylaxis for Covid-19
{ 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2022, 4, 1]], 'date-time': '2022-04-01T20:56:06Z', 'timestamp': 1648846566455},
'reference-count': 0,
'publisher': 'Open Access Text Pvt, Ltd.',
'issue': '3',
'content-domain': {'domain': [], 'crossmark-restriction': False},
'DOI': '10.15761/tim.1000268',
'type': 'journal-article',
'created': {'date-parts': [[2021, 7, 2]], 'date-time': '2021-07-02T09:24:42Z', 'timestamp': 1625217882000},
'source': 'Crossref',
'is-referenced-by-count': 0,
'title': 'Hydroxychloroquine as post-exposure prophylaxis for Covid-19: Why simple data analysis can lead '
'to the wrong conclusions from well-designed studies',
'prefix': '10.15761',
'volume': '21',
'author': [{'given': 'Juan', 'family': 'M. Luco', 'sequence': 'first', 'affiliation': []}],
'member': '6817',
'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2021]]},
'container-title': 'Trends in Medicine',
'original-title': [],
'deposited': { 'date-parts': [[2021, 7, 2]],
'date-time': '2021-07-02T09:24:43Z',
'timestamp': 1625217883000},
'score': 1,
'resource': { 'primary': { 'URL': 'https://www.oatext.com/hydroxychloroquine-as-post-exposure-prophylaxis-for-covid-19-why-simple-data-analysis-can-lead-to-the-wrong-conclusions-from-well-designed-studies.php'}},
'subtitle': [],
'short-title': [],
'issued': {'date-parts': [[2021]]},
'references-count': 0,
'journal-issue': {'issue': '3', 'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2021]]}},
'URL': 'http://dx.doi.org/10.15761/TiM.1000268',
'relation': {},
'ISSN': ['1594-2848'],
'subject': [],
'container-title-short': 'Trends Med',
'published': {'date-parts': [[2021]]}}
