Drug reposition, or repurposing, has become a promising strategy in therapeutics due to its advantages in several aspects of drug therapy. General drug development is expensive and can take more than 10 years to go through the designing, development, and necessary approval steps. However, established drugs have already overcome these steps and thus a potential candidate may be already available decreasing the risks and costs involved. In case of viral diseases, virus invades the cells of host organism and provoke biochemical changes in it that lead to tissue damage, alternations in normal physiological functions and sometimes death. Inside the cell, the virus finds the machinery necessary for its multiplication, as for instance the protein quality control system, which involves chaperones and Hsps (heat shock proteins) that, in addition to physiological functions, help in the stabilization of viral proteins. Recently, many inhibitors of Hsp90 have been developed as therapeutic strategies against diseases such as the Hsp90 inhibitors used in anticancer therapy. Several shreds of evidence indicate that these inhibitors can also be used as therapeutic strategies against viruses. Therefore, since a drug treatment for COVID-19 is urgently needed, this review aims to discuss the potential use of Hsp90 inhibitors in the treatment of this globally threatening disease.

药物重新定位或重新利用，由于其在药物治疗的多个方面的优势，已成为一种有前途的治疗策略。一般药物开发成本高昂，可能需要 10 年以上的时间才能完成设计、开发和必要的审批步骤。然而，现有药物已经克服了这些步骤，因此可能已经有潜在的候选药物，从而降低了所涉及的风险和成本。在病毒性疾病中，病毒侵入宿主生物体的细胞并引起其生化变化，导致组织损伤、正常生理功能改变，有时甚至导致死亡。在细胞内，病毒找到了其增殖所需的机制，例如蛋白质质量控​​制系统，其中涉及伴侣和 Hsp（热休克蛋白），除了生理功能外，还有助于稳定病毒蛋白质。最近，许多Hsp90抑制剂已被开发作为针对疾病的治疗策略，例如用于抗癌治疗的Hsp90抑制剂。一些证据表明这些抑制剂也可以用作针对病毒的治疗策略。因此，由于迫切需要针对 COVID-19 的药物治疗，本综述旨在讨论 Hsp90 抑制剂在治疗这种全球威胁疾病中的潜在用途。