Antimalarial agents
Chloroquine (CQ) and its analogue hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), two well-known anti-malarial drugs, have been proposed for severe COVID-19 treatment, with more than 70 clinical trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov. Several studies have demonstrated the anti-inflammatory activity of chloroquine mainly due to significant inhibition ofcytokines release, including IL-1β, from monocytes and macrophages (Hong et al., 2004). Recently, a direct role for chloroquine in inhibiting the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome components has been demonstrated (Chen, Wang, Zhu, Lu, Liu & Zheng, 2017). Besides, hydroxychloroquine exerts its anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting cathepsin-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation (Tang et al., 2018).