Coronaviruses and SARS-COV-2

Abstract

Coronaviruses (CoVs) cause a broad spectrum of diseases in domestic and wild animals, poultry, and rodents, ranging from mild to severe enteric, respiratory, and systemic disease, and also cause the common cold or pneumonia in humans. Seven coronavirus species are known to cause human infection, 4 of which, HCoV 229E, HCoV NL63, HCoV HKU1 and HCoV OC43, typically cause cold symptoms in immunocompetent individuals. The others namely SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus), MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) were zoonotic in origin and cause severe respiratory illness and fatalities. On 31 December 2019, the existence of patients with pneumonia of an unknown aetiology was reported to WHO by the national authorities in China. This virus was officially identified by the coronavirus study group as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the present outbreak of a coronavirus-associated acute respiratory disease was labelled coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). COVID-19’s first cases were seen in Turkey on March 10, 2020 and was number 47,029 cases and 1006 deaths after 1 month. Infections with SARS-CoV-2 are now widespread, and as of 10 April 2020, 1,727,602 cases have been confirmed in more than 210 countries, with 105,728 deaths.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Human coronaviruses; animal coronaviruses; history of coronaviruses.

Figure 1

The Structure of SARS-CoV-2 virus and ACE2 protein [47]. (Contributed by Rohan Bir Singh; made with Biorender.com)

Figure 2

Genomic structure of SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan Hu-1 strain. Accession: NC_045512 [9]

Figure 3

Binding, viral entry, and replication cycle of SARS-CoV-2 [47]. (Contributed by Rohan Bir Singh, made with Biorender.com).

Figure 4

Animal origins of human coronaviruses [5].