New Insights into the Mechanism of Action of the Drug Chloroquine: Direct Interaction with DNA and Cytotoxicity

Chloroquine (CLQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCLQ) are compounds largely employed in the treatment of various human diseases for decades. Nevertheless, a number of intrinsic details concerning their mechanisms of action, especially at the molecular level, are still unknown or have presented controversial results in the literature. Using optical tweezers, here, we investigate at the single-molecule level the molecular mechanism of action of the drug CLQ in its intrinsic interaction with the double-stranded (ds)DNA molecule, one of its targets inside cells, determining the binding modes and the physicochemical (binding) parameters of the interaction. In particular, we show that the ionic strength of the surrounding medium strongly influences such interaction, changing even the main binding mode. In addition, the cytotoxicity of CLQ against three different cell lines was also investigated here, allowing one to evaluate and compare the effect of the drug on the cell viability. In particular, we show that CLQ is highly cytotoxic at a very low (a few micromolar) concentration range for all cell lines tested. These results were rigorously compared to the equivalent ones obtained for the closely related compound hydroxychloroquine (HCLQ), allowing a critical comparison between the action of these drugs at the molecular and cellular levels.