Treatment and vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome

Abstract

The causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which affected over 8000 individuals worldwide and was responsible for over 700 deaths in the 2002-2003 outbreak, is a coronavirus that was unknown before the outbreak. Although many different treatments were used during the outbreak, none were implemented in a controlled fashion. Thus, the optimal treatment for SARS is unknown. Since the outbreak, much work has been done testing new agents against SARS using in-vitro methods and animal models. In addition, global research efforts have focused on the development of vaccines against SARS. Efforts should be made to evaluate the most promising treatments and vaccines in controlled clinical trials, should another SARS outbreak occur.

Figure 1

Morphology of SARS coronavirus Electron microscopy reveals virus particles on the surface of infected cytopathic Vero E6 cells (A). The diameter of the virus particle ranges between 60 nm and 120 nm with a round to oval shape. Virions are also localised intracellularly within vesicles (B). Scale bars represent 100 nm. Reproduced with permission from Chin J Biochem Biophys 2003; 35: 587–91.

Figure 2

Structure of SARS coronavirus The SARS-coronavirus lipid bilayer consists of the membrane glycoprotein, the spike protein, and the envelope protein that surround the helical SARS-coronavirus nucleocapsid. The nucleocapsid consists of the nucleocapsid protein in association with viral RNA.

Figure 3

Treatment options A summary of the agents used clinically and studied experimentally regarding the pharmacological treatment and prevention of SARS