• Ali A Rabaan, Shamsah H Al-Ahmed, Shafiul Haque, Ranjit Sah, Ruchi Tiwari, Yashpal Singh Malik, Kuldeep Dhama, M Iqbal Yatoo, D Katterine Bonilla-Aldana, and Alfonso J Rodriguez-Morales.
• Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
• Infez Med. 2020 Jun 1; 28 (2): 174-184.

AbstractThe recent outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 that started in Wuhan, China, has now spread to several other countries and is in its exponential phase of spread. Although less pathogenic than SARS-CoV, it has taken several lives and taken down the economies of many countries. Before this outbreak, the most recent coronavirus outbreaks were the SARS-CoV and the MERS-CoV outbreaks that happened in China and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Since the SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the same family as of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, they share several similarities. So, this review aims at understanding the new scenario of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and compares the epidemiology, clinical presentations, and the genetics of these coronaviruses. Studies reveal that SARS-CoV-2 is very similar in structure and pathogenicity with SARS-CoV, but the most important structural protein, i.e., the spike protein (S), is slightly different in these viruses. The presence of a furin-like cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 facilitates the S protein priming and might increase the efficiency of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 as compared to other beta coronaviruses. So, furin inhibitors can be targeted as potential drug therapies for SARS-CoV.

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