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Review
. 2020 Jul;46(suppl.1):6-18.
doi: 10.1590/S1677-5538.IBJU.2020.S101.

The SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and the COVID-19 Outbreak

Martin Alexander Lauxmann  1   2 , Natalia Estefanía Santucci  3 , Ana María Autrán-Gómez  4
Affiliations
Review

The SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and the COVID-19 Outbreak

Martin Alexander Lauxmann et al. Int Braz J Urol. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2, a newly identified β-coronavirus, is the causative agent of the third large-scale pandemic from the last two decades. The outbreak started in December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei province in China. The patients presented clinical symptoms of dry cough, fever, dyspnea, and bilateral lung infiltrates on imaging. By February 2020, The World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) recognized and designated this virus as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The SARS-CoV-2 uses the same host receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), used by SARS-CoV to infect humans. One hypothesis of SARSCoV-2 origin indicates that it is likely that bats serve as reservoir hosts for SARSCoV-2, being the intermediate host not yet determined. The predominant route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is from human to human. As of May 10th 2020, the number of worldwide confirmed COVID-19 cases is over 4 million, while the number of global deaths is around 279.000 people. The United States of America (USA) has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with over 1.3 million cases followed by Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Russia, France and Germany with over 223.000, 218.000, 215.000, 209.000, 176.000, and 171.000 cases, respectively.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Diagnosis; spike protein, SARS-CoV-2 [Supplementary Concept].

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses.
E protein, small envelope (E) protein; M protein, matrix (M) protein; S protein, spike (S) glycoprotein (homotrimer). Adapted from “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/ Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS”.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Phylogeny of SARS-like betacoronaviruses including novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Phylogenetic tree including 52 genomes. Red dots, SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses from the COVID-19 epidemic; yellow dots, SARS-CoV coronaviruses from the 2002-03 SARS outbreak; and blue dots, SARS-like coronaviruses. Adapted from “github.com/blab/sars-like-cov”; “Built with blab/sars-like-cov and maintained by Trevor Bedford and Emma Hodcroft”.
Figure 3
Figure 3. SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
Number of cumulative cases per million of inhabitants: Both graphs (A and B) show the daily evolution of the number of detected cumulative cases of COVID-19 until 50 days after the first reported case normalized to each country's population. In the upper right boxes the absolute number of cases during the same time period is shown. (A) Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in countries (Portugal, Germany, Peru, Italy, Spain, USA, France) which number of cases/million inhabitants is greater than 500 (cumulative cases/ million inhabitants). (B) Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in countries (China, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil) which number of cases/million inhabitants is smaller than 500 (cumulative cases/ million inhabitants). The data used for the construction of the curves were obtained from the maps of John Hopkins University https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html ( 15 ).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Diagram of the immune response to infection with SARS-CoV-2.
The intracellular response of the infected macrophage is shown on the left side of the figure. As shown, both protein S and viral RNA will induce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as type 1 interferons. The main activation pathways are those that lead to nuclear translocation of NF-kB and IRF (Interferon Response Factors). On the right side are shown the cells of the innate as well as the adaptive immune response that are involved in antiviral immunity, with the mechanisms of cytotoxicity as well as those of humoral immunity being the most relevant. TLR4, Toll Like receptor 4; MDA-5, Melanoma Differentiation Antigen 5; IFN, Type I Interferon; NK cells, Natural Killer Cells; IRF3 and 7, Interferon Response Factors; TNF-β, Tumor necrosis factor-β; MCP-1, Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1; Th17, T-helper 17 cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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