Title:Natural Agents Targeting Hsp90 Co-chaperones could be Promising Candidates
for Viral Resistance Prevention
Volume: 2
Issue: 6
Author(s): Yuan Quan, Bo-Min Lv and Hong-Yu Zhang*
Affiliation:
- Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan
430070, P.R. China
Keywords:
Natural agents, virus resistance preventives, heat shock protein 90, co-chaperones, antiviral effects, Hsp90.
Abstract: Viral infections have constituted a serious menace to global health. The emergence of
resistant strains resulting from adaptive evolution poses a great challenge to virus control. Heat
Shock Protein 90 (Hsp90) can shepherd virus-mutated proteins to fold into functional conformations.
Therefore, inhibiting Hsp90 can block the evolution of viruses. However, none of the current
Hsp90 inhibitors has been approved because of the unacceptable side effects. Considering the
importance of co-chaperones for Hsp90 conformational cycle, inhibiting Hsp90 through cochaperones
may be a safe and effective strategy. Some natural agents can bind the co-chaperones to
indirectly modulate Hsp90 activity with low toxicity. Besides, some of these natural agents indicate
antiviral effects. Therefore, natural products are highly expected to be used as virus resistance preventives
by targeting the co-chaperones of Hsp90.