Omics : a journal of integrative biology
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Review Comparative Study
Molecular Basis of Pathogenesis of Coronaviruses: A Comparative Genomics Approach to Planetary Health to Prevent Zoonotic Outbreaks in the 21st Century.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, we are already facing the third emergence of a coronavirus outbreak, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Comparative genomics can inform a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Previous strains of coronavirus, SARS-CoV, and Middle-East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV), have been known to cause acute lung injuries in humans. ⋯ Susceptibility of humans to coronavirus outbreaks in the 21st century calls for comparisons of the transmission history, hosts, reservoirs, and fatality rates of these viruses so that evidence-based and effective planetary health interventions can be devised to prevent future zoonotic outbreaks. Comparative genomics offers new insights on putative and novel viral targets with an eye to both therapeutic innovation and prevention. We conclude the expert review by (1) articulating the lessons learned so far, whereas the research is still being actively sought after in the field, and (2) the challenges and prospects in deciphering the linkages among multiomics biological variability and COVID-19 pathogenesis.
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Health futures are not preordained, nor are they entirely predictable by extrapolation from the past. This is particularly relevant in an era of unprecedented uncertainties converging from the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple zoonotic outbreaks for the past two decades, and the climate crisis currently unfolding. Moreover, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services cautioned in 2019 that around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. ⋯ In doing so, the One Nature governance frame places a firm emphasis on the internal levers of social change and the human values essential to cultivate collective action to curb unchecked extraction of nature that placed human societies in harm's way for future health crises. One Nature is a governance frame and reflexive value system that can be transformative to correct the astigmatism we have long suffered, from the ways in which we have conceived, enacted on, and extracted the natural systems over the centuries. All in all, One Nature supports planetary health and biodiversity through a new vocabulary and post-anthropocentric critical governance lens, and shall help formulate progressive policies to prevent zoonotic outbreaks and future ecological crises.