Towards our understanding of SARS-CoV, an emerging and devastating but quickly conquered virus

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerging infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which has overwhelmed more than 30 countries claiming nearly 8400 cases with over 800 fatalities. Thanks to the unprecedented international collaboration, the whole-genomes of SARS-CoVs were successfully deciphered shortly after the identification of the causative pathogen for outbreak of SARS in southern China, in 2003. Hitherto, the SARS-CoV, as a viral paradigm of emerging infectious entities, has been extensively studied that has ranged from epidemiology, molecular virology/immunology to structural genomics. Also, several lines of breakthroughs have been record-brokenly obtained, that included the finding of ACE2, a functional receptor for the SARS-CoV, solution of the 3CL(pro) structure, a first crystal structure of SARS-related macromolecules, revealing of bats as natural reservoirs for SARS-like viruses and the possible involvement of civet cats in the SARS emergence. This review intends to outline the major progress in the journey of SARS-related exploration, by emphasizing those inaugurated studies with milestone-like significance contributed by Chinese research groups.

Interaction of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus and NL63 coronavirus spike proteins with angiotensin converting enzyme-2

“…Infection by SARS-CoV causes severe acute respiratory syndrome with high levels of morbidity and mortality (Drosten et al , 2003; Feng & Gao, 2007; Kuiken et al , 2003), while infection by NL63 rarely requires hospitalization despite being commonly associated with lower respiratory tract infection and croup (van der Hoek, 2007; van der Hoek et al , 2005; Wu et al , 2008). Both viruses use angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-2 as the viral receptor (Hofmann et al , 2005; Li et al , 2003), raising the interesting possibility that the difference in pathology is (in part) the result of differential receptor engagement.…”

For a better world: Biosafety strategies to protect global health

“…Since the beginning of the 21st century, the world has experienced a series of major crises due to outbreaks of infectious diseases. In 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic affected over 8000 people with a mortality rate about 9.6%, sparking global fear and panic [4]. Other epidemics included the emergence/re-emergence of H5N1 influenza (1997,2003) [5,6], Vibrio cholerae in Haiti (2010), pandemic "swine flu" H1N1 (2009), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (2012), Ebola virus disease in West Africa (2014), and Yersinia pestis in Madagascar (2017).…”

“…The SARS epidemic in 2002-2003 wreaked havoc on both the society and economy of China [4], highlighting the urgent requirement to establish a modern biosafety management system in China. To achieve this objective, the Chinese government formulated and systematically implemented a long-term plan including a complete architecture for biosafety management.…”

Methylene blue covalently attached to single stranded DNA as electroactive label for potential bioassays

“…All DNA sequences corresponded to a portion of the SARS genome. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is an emerging infectious disease emerged in Southern China and rapidly spread to different areas of the Far East, caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which has overwhelmed more than 30 countries claiming nearly 8400 cases with over 800 fatalities since late 2002 [52,53]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a comparative study between DNA single strands, different in length and labeling degree is made on CNTs nanostructured gold SPEs.…”