WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Muskan R. Sahu, Smruti D. Lonare, Reva A. Salunke and Hrishikesh N. Gupta*

ABSTRACT

Chloroquine has been used throughout the globe for treatment of malaria and other parasitic infections since its discovery. In the past few decades, chloroquine was discovered to be effective against wide variety of ailments including autoimmune disorders, viral infections and cancer. Consequently, chloroquine had undergone extensive research for its adverse effects. There are many scientific reports evidencing multiple short-term and long-term adverse effects of chloroquine and its analogues. Among these effects, neuropsychiatric consequences of chloroquine result primarily due to lipophilic nature of the drug and complex arrangement and interlinking of neurotransmitter circuitry in brain. Additionally, multifold cellular effects of chloroquine damage the neuronal and extra-neuronal cells in the CNS and periphery. This review summarizes the neuropsychiatric adverse effects of chloroquine and the cellular mechanism behind them. The adverse effects reported in the Eudravigilance, an ‘European database of suspected adverse drug reaction reports’ are taken for reference and analyzed for their occurrence and susceptibility. Finally, all the scattered and scientifically proved cellular mechanisms responsible for the neuropsychiatric effects of chloroquine are collected together to propose a more logical comprehensive cellular mechanism which will help the researchers to develop strategic plan for use and discovery of better analogues of this wonder drug.