Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

Abstract

Coronaviruses are a diverse group of viruses infecting many different animals, and they can cause mild to severe respiratory infections in humans. In 2002 and 2012, respectively, two highly pathogenic coronaviruses with zoonotic origin, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), emerged in humans and caused fatal respiratory illness, making emerging coronaviruses a new public health concern in the twenty-first century 1. At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus designated as SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, and caused an outbreak of unusual viral pneumonia. Being highly transmissible, this novel coronavirus disease, also known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spread fast all over the world 2,3. It has overwhelmingly surpassed SARS and MERS in terms of both the number of infected people and the spatial range of epidemic areas. The ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 has posed an extraordinary threat to global public health 4,5. In this Review, we summarize the current understanding of the nature of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. On the basis of recently published findings, this comprehensive Review covers the basic biology of SARS-CoV-2, including the genetic characteristics, the potential zoonotic origin and its receptor binding. Furthermore, we will discuss the clinical and epidemiological features, diagnosis of and countermeasures against COVID-19. Emergence and spread In late December 2019, several health facilities in Wuhan, in Hubei province in China, reported clusters of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause 6. Similarly to patients with SARS and MERS, these patients showed symptoms of viral pneumonia, including fever, cough

SARS-CoV-2: Structure, Biology, and Structure-Based Therapeutics Development

“…This kind of spreading has the possibility to occur during the incubation period (Yu P. et al, 2020). It is worth noting that SARS-CoV-2 has high transmissibility during asymptomatic period or mild disease (Hu B. et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020). SARS-CoV-2 can also transmit from human to animal.…”

Neuronal and Cerebrovascular Complications in Coronavirus Disease 2019

“…The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) has infected tens of millions, with more than one million deaths worldwide since first detected in early December 2019 in Wuhan, China (Holder and Reddy, 2020;Hu et al, 2020;Vallamkondu et al, 2020). This infection has resulted in the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 , which is primarily considered a respiratory tract disease (Holder and Reddy, 2020;Hu et al, 2020). The SARS-CoV-2 is an exceptionally infectious type of coronavirus compared to previous coronaviruses known to infect humans (Vallamkondu et al, 2020).…”

Identification of a High-frequency Intra-host SARS-CoV-2 spike Variant with Enhanced Cytopathic and Fusogenic Effect

“…Observed for the first time in 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its associated disease, COVID-19, has caused significant worldwide mortality and unprecedented economic burden. SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped virus with a genome comprised of a ~30K nucleotides non-segmented, positive-sense single-stranded RNA (vRNA) [1,2]. The virus is composed of four main structural proteins, encoded at the last 3' terminal third of the viral genome: the spike glycoprotein (S), membrane (M), envelope (E) and the nucleocapsid (N) [3][4][5].…”