[Effect of chloroquine on polyanions]

Chloroquine forms complexes with polyanions as does the metachromatic dye pseudoisocyanine. This phenomenon can be used to show chloroquine binding to polyanions. It is shown spectrophotometrically that glycosaminoglycans form complexes with chloroquine more readily than with pseudoisocyanine. Moreover chloroquine abolishes fluorescence of glycosaminoglycan inclusion bodies in leucocytes of mucopolysaccharidosis patients. A woman of 34 suffering from mucopolysaccharidosis type I-S had such inclusion bodies in 19 out of 200 leucocytes examined before and in only two after a month of chloroquine treatment. In heparinized blood chloroquine induces clotting faster than does saline in control samples. This finding suggests inactivation of polyanions by chloroquine binding.