Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly become a global pandemic and no antiviral drug or vaccine is yet available for the treatment of this disease 1 – 3 . Several clinical studies are ongoing to evaluate the efficacy of repurposed drugs that have demonstrated antiviral efficacy in vitro. Among these candidates, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been given to thousands of individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)—the virus that causes COVID-19—worldwide but there is no definitive evidence that HCQ is effective for treating COVID-19 4 – 7 . Here we evaluated the antiviral activity of HCQ both in vitro and in SARS-CoV-2-infected macaques. HCQ showed antiviral activity in African green monkey kidney cells (Vero E6) but not in a model of reconstituted human airway epithelium. In macaques, we tested different treatment strategies in comparison to a placebo treatment, before and after peak viral load, alone or in combination with azithromycin (AZTH). Neither HCQ nor the combination of HCQ and AZTH showed a significant effect on viral load in any of the analysed tissues. When the drug was used as a pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment, HCQ did not confer protection against infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our findings do not support the use of HCQ, either alone or in combination with AZTH, as an antiviral drug for the treatment of COVID-19 in humans. Hydroxychloroquine did not confer protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection or reduce the viral load after infection in macaques; these findings do not support the use of hydroxychloroquine as an antiviral drug treatment of COVID-19 in humans.

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羟氯喹在非人类灵长类动物中对抗 SARS-CoV-2 感染的用途

2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 已迅速成为全球流行病，目前尚无抗病毒药物或疫苗可用于治疗这种疾病 1 – 3 。几项临床研究正在进行中，以评估在体外已证明具有抗病毒功效的再利用药物的功效。在这些候选药物中，羟氯喹 (HCQ) 已在全球范围内用于感染严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2)（导致 COVID-19 的病毒）的数千人，但没有确切证据表明 HCQ 有效用于治疗 COVID-19 4 – 7 。在这里，我们在体外和感染 SARS-CoV-2 的猕猴中评估了 HCQ 的抗病毒活性。HCQ 在非洲绿猴肾细胞 (Vero E6) 中显示出抗病毒活性，但在重建的人气道上皮模型中没有显示出抗病毒活性。在猕猴中，我们测试了与安慰剂治疗相比的不同治疗策略，在病毒载量峰值前后，单独或与阿奇霉素 (AZTH) 联合使用。HCQ 或 HCQ 与 AZTH 的组合均未对任何分析的组织中的病毒载量产生显着影响。当该药物被用作暴露前预防治疗时，HCQ 没有提供针对 SARS-CoV-2 感染的保护。我们的研究结果不支持单独或与 AZTH 联合使用 HCQ 作为治疗人类 COVID-19 的抗病毒药物。羟氯喹没有提供针对 SARS-CoV-2 感染的保护或降低猕猴感染后的病毒载量；这些发现不支持使用羟氯喹作为人类 COVID-19 的抗病毒药物治疗。