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Review
. 2021 Dec 14:11:763687.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.763687. eCollection 2021.

Molecular Evolution of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2: Hazardous and More Hazardous Strains Behind the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic and Their Targeting by Drugs and Vaccines

Hardeep Singh Tuli  1 , Katrin Sak  2 , Poonam Aggarwal  3 , Ashif Iqubal  4 , Sushil K Upadhaya  1 , Jagjit Kaur  5 , Ginpreet Kaur  6 , Diwakar Aggarwal  1
Affiliations
Review

Molecular Evolution of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2: Hazardous and More Hazardous Strains Behind the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic and Their Targeting by Drugs and Vaccines

Hardeep Singh Tuli et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

Within almost the last 2 years, the world has been shaken by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has affected the lives of all people. With nearly 4.92 million deaths by October 19, 2021, and serious health damages in millions of people, COVID-19 has been the most serious global challenge after the Second World War. Besides lost lives and long-term health problems, devastating impact on economics, education, and culture will probably leave a lasting impression on the future. Therefore, the actual extent of losses will become obvious only after years. Moreover, despite the availability of different vaccines and vaccination programs, it is still impossible to forecast what the next steps of the virus are or how near we are to the end of the pandemic. In this article, the route of molecular evolution of the coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is thoroughly compiled, highlighting the changes that the virus has undergone during the last 2 years and discussing the approaches that the medical community has undertaken in the fight against virus-induced damages.

Keywords: COVID pandemic; molecular evolution; therapeutics; vaccination; variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Risk of infectivity and morbidity among COVID-19 patients: (A) sex based, (B) age based, and (C) comorbidities. COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic representation of mechanisms of action of COVID-19 therapeutics by inhibiting endocytosis, ACE2 receptor, and viral replication. COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; ACE2, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The vaccines (viral vector and nucleic acid vaccines) are administered through intramuscular or intradermal routes, and antigen expression is initiated in the cells. The B cells and T cells generate the humoral immune response and cell-mediated immune response, respectively. The cell-mediated immune response produces the cytokines that kill the infected cells, and humoral cells produce antibodies that prevent the COVID-19 infection. COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019.
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