Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Dec;235(12):8873-8924.
doi: 10.1002/jcp.29735. Epub 2020 May 26.

COVID-19 under spotlight: A close look at the origin, transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of the 2019-nCoV disease

Roghayeh Sheervalilou  1 , Milad Shirvaliloo  2 , Nahid Dadashzadeh  3 , Sakine Shirvalilou  4 , Omolbanin Shahraki  1 , Younes Pilehvar-Soltanahmadi  5 , Habib Ghaznavi  6 , Samideh Khoei  7 , Ziba Nazarlou  8
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 under spotlight: A close look at the origin, transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of the 2019-nCoV disease

Roghayeh Sheervalilou et al. J Cell Physiol. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Months after the outbreak of a new flu-like disease in China, the entire world is now in a state of caution. The subsequent less-anticipated propagation of the novel coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19, not only made it to headlines by an overwhelmingly high transmission rate and fatality reports, but also raised an alarm for the medical community all around the globe. Since the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, is a recently discovered species, there is no specific medicine for downright treatment of the infection. This has led to an unprecedented societal fear of the newly born disease, adding a psychological aspect to the physical manifestation of the virus. Herein, the COVID-19 structure, epidemiology, pathogenesis, etiology, diagnosis, and therapy have been reviewed.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV or COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2; diagnosis; epidemiology; etiology; pathogenesis; therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Presents a schematic of viral structure and the entry mechanism of SARS‐CoV‐2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agarwal, H. K. , Chhikara, B. S. , Doncel, G. F. , & Parang, K. (2017). Synthesis and anti‐HIV activities of unsymmetrical long chain dicarboxylate esters of dinucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 27(9), 1934–1937. - PubMed
    1. Agarwal, H. K. , Chhikara, B. S. , Quiterio, M. , Doncel, G. F. , & Parang, K. (2012). Synthesis and anti‐HIV activities of glutamate and peptide conjugates of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 55(6), 2672–2687. - PubMed
    1. Ai, T. , Yang, Z. , Hou, H. , Zhan, C. , Chen, C. , Lv, W. , & Xia, L. (2020). Correlation of chest CT and RT‐PCR testing in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in China: A report of 1014 cases. Radiology, 200642, 1–23. https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.2020200642 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Azhar, E. , & EI‐Kafrawy, S. (2014). Evidence for camel‐to‐human transmission of MERS coronavirus. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(26), 2499–2505. - PubMed
    1. Bai, Y. , Yao, L. , Wei, T. , Tian, F. , Jin, D.‐Y. , Chen, L. , & Wang, M. (2020). Presumed asymptomatic carrier transmission of COVID‐19. Journal of the American Medical Association, 323, 1406. - PMC - PubMed