Chloroquine Phosphate Metabolism and Gender-Based Phenotypic Analysis in Healthy Subjects’ Urine Following Oral Administration

Background: chloroquine, 4-n-(7-chloroquinolin-4-yl)-1-n,-n-diethylpentane-1,4-diamine haspromising activity against corona virus disease 2019 (covid-19) and as such, it is imperative tothoroughly understand and determine the rate at which individual body systems metabolizes the drug.chloroquine a known antimalarial drug belongs to the chemical class of 4-aminoquinolines.objectives: the study aimed to analyze chloroquine and its metabolite in biological fluids of healthysubjects by simple thin layer chromatography (tlc), which is an efficient, and inexpensive methodfor quantifying chloroquine and its metabolites.methods: a total of 30 healthy volunteers participated in the study by ingesting 500 mg ofchloroquine, and the results were compared with side effects experienced by these subjects. twobrands of chloroquine phosphate were used for the analysis and the urine were collected pre andpost-drug administration and the intensities of the spots observed were compared with the referencestandard stock solution. the same or greater intensity of sample spot indicates poor metabolizer, lessintensity when compared to the stock spot indicates intermediate metabolizer while a much lesserintensity indicates an extensive metabolizer.results: there was a statistically significant difference between the brands of chloroquine usedat p<0.05. 30% of the volunteers were assigned poor metabolizer phenotype, 50% were assignedextensive metabolizer phenotype, and 20% assigned intermediate metabolizer phenotype based on theintensity of spots observed. the majority of the poor metabolizers were females while the majority ofthe extensive metabolizers were males.conclusion: gender differences plays a vital the role in metabolism, therefore outine implementationof phenotype determination before therapy will therefore greatly improve the goal of therapy andquality of life. implementation of phenotype determination before therapy will, therefore, greatlyimprove the goal of therapy and quality of life.