mTOR inhibitors are used to treat metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC), but most patients eventually become resistant. One possible mechanism for resistance is upregulation of autophagy, a pathway that helps recycle intracellular proteins and promotes cell survival. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a potent autophagy inhibitor used to treat malaria and autoimmune disorders, is currently being studied in...

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is an antimalarial drug used extensively in treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Retinal toxicity is the most important side effects of this drug. Even after the drug is discontinued, retinal degeneration from HCQ can continue to progress. Consequently, multiple ophthalmic screening tests have been developed to detect early retinopathy. The aim...

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD) is a benign disease of unknown etiology characterized by lymphadenopathy and a fever. For the majority of patients with KFD, the course is self-limited; however, the optimum method of managing recurrent cases has not yet been established. We herein report a case of a 42-year-old Japanese woman with KFD (confirmed by a lymph node biopsy). Although high-dose prednis...

Chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are well-known 4-aminoquinoline antimalarial agents. Scientific evidence also supports the use of CQ and HCQ in the treatment of cancer. Overall, preclinical studies support CQ and HCQ use in anti-cancer therapy, especially in combination with conventional anti-cancer treatments since they are able to sensitise tumour cells to a variety of drugs, po...

BACKGROUND Overexpression of membranous CD154 in T lymphocytes has been found previously in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Because hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been used frequently in the treatment of lupus, we sought to identify the effects of HCQ on CD154 and a possibly regulatory mechanism. METHODS CD4+ T cells were isolated from the blood of lupus patients. After stimulation with ion...

PURPOSE The aim of this study is to investigate the association between the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), or psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis (PS/PSA). PATIENTS AND METHODS This retrospective cohort study used a nationwide, population-based administrative database to enroll...

An increasing number of investigations including human studies demonstrate that pharmacological ischaemic preconditioning is a viable way to protect the heart from myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. This study investigated the role of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the heart during I/R injury. In vitro and in vivo models of myocardial I/R injury were used to assess the effects of HCQ. ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Patients taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are at risk of developing classic bull's eye maculopathy. Currently, the standard Amsler grid (AG) is one of the most useful methods to identify such lesions. However, AG is a suprathreshold target and may not detect relative central scotomas. The aim of this study was to determine if the threshold Amsler grid (TAG) test, which varies lig...

Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most common and severe manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus, leading to permanent renal damage and chronic kidney disease. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) serves a protective role against lupus-associated clinical manifestations and medical complications; however, it results in numerous adverse reactions, limiting its long-term use. The aim of the present s...

PURPOSE Estrogen receptor-α (ERα)-targeted therapies including tamoxifen (TAM) or Faslodex (ICI) are used to treat ER(+) breast cancers. Up to 50% of tumors will acquire resistance to these interventions. Autophagy has been implicated as a major driver of antiestrogen resistance. We have explored the ability of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which inhibits autophagy, to affect antiestrogen responsiv...