Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a newly emerged pathogen: an overview

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a newly emerged pathogen: an overview - PubMed

Review

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a newly emerged pathogen: an overview

Jitendra Singh Rathore et al. Pathog Dis. 2020.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral pneumonia, responsible for the recent pandemic, and originated from Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The causative agent of the outbreak was identified as coronavirus and designated as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2). Few years back, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS- CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were reported to be highly pathogenic and caused severe infections in humans. In the current situation SARS-CoV-2 has become the third highly pathogenic coronavirus that is responsible for the present outbreak in human population. At the time of this review, there were more than 14 007 791 confirmed COVID-19 patients which associated with over 597 105 deaths in more then 216 countries across the globe (as reported by World Health Organization). In this review we have discussed about SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARC-CoV-2, their reservoirs, role of spike proteins and immunogenicity. We have also covered the diagnosis, therapeutics and vaccine status of SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID 19; MERS-CoV; SARS-CoV; SARS-CoV-2; spike protein and therapeutics.

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Figures

**Figure 1.**
Schematic representation of the genomic organization of SARS-CoV-2. The orf1ab and orf1a encodes pp1ab and pp1a nonstructural proteins, respectively. The structural proteins are encoded by the structural genes, including spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M) and nucleocapsid (N) genes.

**Figure 2.**
Prospective interspecies transmission routes of MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV.

**Figure 3.**
Schematic representation SARS-CoV-2 intercation with human receptor. The SARS-CoV-2 binds to a ACE2 through the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the S1 domain of S protein, followed by fusion with cell membrane.

**Figure 4.**
Diagrammatic representation of functional domains of S protein in SAS-CoV-2. The SP, signal peptide; NTD, N-terminal domain; RBD, receptor-binding domain; FP, fusion peptide, HR1, heptad repeat 1; HR2, heptad repeat 2; TM, transmembrane domain; CP, cytoplasmic domain.

**Figure 5.**
Diagrammatic representation of SARS-CoV-2 targets, for the neutralizing antibodies, vaccines design and various entry/fusion inhibitors.

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