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 Sep;245(15):1299-1307.
doi: 10.1177/1535370220942126. Epub 2020 Jul 7.

Pathology and pathogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Henok Kessete Afewerky  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Pathology and pathogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Henok Kessete Afewerky. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2020 Sep.

Abstract

The current survey of studies outlines the direct and indirect effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the specific body systems and summarizes the SARS-CoV-2 main pathogenicity mechanisms that require attention during patient hospitalization and for further research.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; pathogenicity; pathology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematic representation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pathogenicity characteristics. The entry of the virus into the target cell depends on the binding of the virus surface protein spikes, variable receptor-binding domain (RBD), to the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor augmented by type 2 transmembrane serine protease (TMPRSS2). (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Outline of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pathophysiology and pathogenicity. The virus has direct or indirect effects on multi-body systems that warrant a need for multidisciplinary attention during patient hospitalization and further research. The most common COVID-19 features to a body system include pneumonia (pulmonary), myocardial injury (cardiovascular), lymphopenia (immunity), diarrheic (gastrointestinal), acute kidney impairment, AKI, (urogenital), dermatitis (integumentary), arthritis (musculoskeletal), and neuropathic (neuronal). (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020.
    1. Zhou P, Yang XL, Wang XG, Hu B, Zhang L, Zhang W, Si HR, Zhu Y, Li B, Huang CL, Chen HD, Chen J, Luo Y, Guo H, Jiang RD, Liu MQ, Chen Y, Shen XR, Wang X, Zheng XS, Zhao K, Chen QJ, Deng F, Liu LL, Yan B, Zhan FX, Wang YY, Xiao GF, Shi ZL. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature 2020; 579:270–3 - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. SARS-CoV that caused the 2002. –2003 pandemic – 5 July 2003.
    1. Corman VM, Muth D, Niemeyer D, Drosten C. Hosts and sources of endemic human coronaviruses. Adv Virus Res 2018; 100:163–88 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ge X, Li Y, Yang X, Zhang H, Zhou P, Zhang Y, Shi Z. Metagenomic analysis of viruses from bat fecal samples reveals many novel viruses in insectivorous bats in China. J Virol 2012; 86:4620–30 - PMC - PubMed