>THE ZINC PROPELS THE QUININE
Gentle correction required, Anon. Zinc is essential in this context. Getting it there is the job of the ionophore.
ionophore
NOUN
biochemistry
a substance which is able to transport particular ions across a lipid membrane in a cell.
Quercetin
Quercetin acts as a zinc ionophore (PubMed 2014), the same mechanism of action that hydroxychloroquine has via helping zinc pass the cell wall where it might halt viral replication. This zinc ionophore activity of quercetin facilitates the transport of zinc across the cell membrane.
Zinc ionophore activity of quercetin …
Dietary plant polyphenols such as the flavonoids quercetin (QCT) and epigallocatechin-gallate act as antioxidants and as signaling molecules. Remarkably, the activities of numerous enzymes that are targeted by polyphenols are dependent on zinc. We have previously shown that these polyphenols chelate zinc cations and hypothesized that these flavonoids might be also acting as zinc ionophores, transporting zinc cations through the plasma membrane. To prove this hypothesis, herein, we have demonstrated the capacity of QCT and epigallocatechin-gallate to rapidly increase labile zinc in mouse hepatocarcinoma Hepa 1-6 cells as well as, for the first time, in liposomes. In order to confirm that the polyphenols transport zinc cations across the plasma membrane independently of plasma membrane zinc transporters, QCT, epigallocatechin-gallate, or clioquinol (CQ), alone and combined with zinc, were added to unilamellar dipalmitoylphosphocholine/cholesterol liposomes loaded with membrane-impermeant FluoZin-3. Only the combinations of the chelators with zinc triggered a rapid increase of FluoZin-3 fluorescence within the liposomes, thus demonstrating the ionophore action of QCT, epigallocatechin-gallate, and CQ on lipid membrane systems.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25050823/