Chloroquine and pyrimethamine inhibit the replication of human respiratory syncytial virus A

Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children and can cause severe infections in the elderly or in immunocompromised adults. To date, there is no vaccine to prevent hRSV infections, and disease management is limited to preventive care by palivizumab in infants and supportive care for adults. Intervention with small-molecule antivirals specific for hRSV represents a good alternative, but no such compounds are currently approved. The investigation of existing drugs for new therapeutic purposes (drug repositioning) can be a faster approach to address this issue. In this study, we show that chloroquine and pyrimethamine inhibit the replication of human respiratory syncytial virus A (long strain) and synergistically increase the anti-replicative effect of ribavirin in cellulo. Moreover, chloroquine, but not pyrimethamine, inhibits hRSV replication in the mouse model. Our results show that chloroquine can potentially be an interesting compound for treatment of hRSV infection in monotherapy or in combination with other antivirals.