Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Exp Med. Dec 9, 2022; 12(6): 108-110
Published online Dec 9, 2022. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v12.i6.108
Can hydroxychloroquine be used for COVID-19-induced arthritis? A debatable hypothesis
Raktim Swarnakar, Sankha Subhra Roy, Shiv Lal Yadav
Raktim Swarnakar, Sankha Subhra Roy, Shiv Lal Yadav, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, Delhi, India
Author contributions: Swarnakar R and Roy SS contributed to conception and design; Swarnakar R, Roy SS and Yadav SL contributed to literature search and writing.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Raktim Swarnakar, MBBS, MD, Doctor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, Delhi, India. raktimswarnakar@hotmail.com
Received: October 10, 2022
Peer-review started: October 10, 2022
First decision: November 11, 2022
Revised: November 18, 2022
Accepted: December 7, 2022
Article in press: December 7, 2022
Published online: December 9, 2022
Processing time: 59 Days and 9.8 Hours
Abstract

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is a known disease-modifying antirheumatic drug for rheumatoid arthritis. It is also being used in viral arthritis on many occasions. HCQ is also being used to treat coronavirus disease 2019, but the results are not satisfactory. HCQ has been shown to have antiviral effects. In this context, we have a hypothesis that HCQ may be used as a treatment option in post-coronavirus disease 2019 arthritis.

Keywords: COVID-19, Arthritis, Hydroxychloroquine, DMARDS, SARS-CoV-2, Post-COVID-19 arthritis

Core Tip: Hydroxychloroquine is a known disease-modifying antirheumatic drug and has antiviral properties. It had previously been used to treat viral arthritis. In this letter, using future research questions in the context of the evidence in the literature we debate whether hydroxychloroquine can be used in post-coronavirus disease 2019 arthritis.