A Multi-dimensional Review on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2

Abstract

The advent and spread of novel coronavirus (nCoV) has posed a new public health crisis since December 2019. Several cases of unexplained pneumonia occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, only a month before the Chinese Spring festival. After the diagnosis of bronchoalveolar fluid samples of people infected, the new coronavirus was identified using nextgeneration sequence technology. This work aims to provide information regarding COVID-19 that will help the researchers to identify the vital therapeutic targets for SARS-CoV-2 and also will provide insights into some significant findings of recent times highlighted by scientific communities around the globe. In this review, we have tried to explore multiple aspects related to COVID-19, including epidemiology, etiology, COVID-19 variants, vaccine candidates, potential therapeutic targets, the role of natural products, and computational studies in drug design and development, repurposing, and analysis of crystal structures available for COVID-19 related protein structures. Druggable targets include all viral enzymes and proteins involved in viral replication and regulation of host cellular machines. The medical community tracks several therapies to combat the infection by investigating various antiviral and immunomodulatory mechanisms. While some vaccines are approved in this worldwide health crisis, a more precise therapy or drug is formally recommended to be used against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Natural products other than synthetic drugs have been tested by in silico analysis against COVID-19. However, important issues still need to be addressed regarding in vivo bioavailability and better efficacy.

Keywords: COVID mutants; Coronavirus; computational study; drug repurposing; natural products; vaccine.