Acta virologica
-
The deadly disease-causing novel coronavirus has recently swept across the world and endangered many human lives. Although, various research on therapeutic measures to solve this pandemic crisis has been published; no favourable results have been achieved. We propose the use of potential FDA-approved dual inhibitors which can inhibit two targets (either on entry-level or the main protease) for the effective treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). ⋯ Ribavirin and tenofovir showed significant binding energy above -8 kcal/mol with seven HB interactions with the main protease and also spike protein. The novel findings regarding the antiviral properties of these dual inhibitors using a computational approach will be a good starting point for the efficacy determination of these drugs for pre-clinical and clinical studies aimed at developing active antivirals to target SARS-CoV-2. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; FDA-approved drugs; viral inhibitors; in-silico analysis; molecular docking.
-
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a novel strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) which was declared by WHO as a cause of global pandemic. By human-to-human transmission it caused severe damage to mankind with increased mortality rate worldwide. Coronavirus is a spherical enveloped virus with single stranded positive-sense RNA with a size of ~30 kilobases encoding various structural, non-structural and accessory proteins. ⋯ The diagnostics of SARS-CoV-2 is mainly done by RT-qPCR and serological tests. There is no effective treatment for COVID-19, however, few methods like plasma therapy and remdesivir treatment are reported to show promising results in improving patient's health and decreasing mortality rate. Keywords: SARS-CoV; spike protein; nucleocapsid; COVID-19; interferon.
-
The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) globally threatens the public health. COVID-19 is a pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), previously known as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Typical symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and fatigue. ⋯ However, various drugs and vaccines have been currently under research. This review aims to consolidate and discuss the likely origins and genetic features of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the recent clinical findings and potential effective treatments of COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; 2019-nCoV; SARS; coronavirus.
-
An outbreak of new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has emerged during December 2019. The ongoing outbreak in Wuhan City spread rapidly throughout China, where the fatality rate ranged from 2.1 to 4.9%. Due to its high transmissibility, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020. ⋯ The purpose of this article is to overview the history, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID 2019 reported in recently published studies. Based on the results of virus genome sequencing and a model of the interaction between host cells and the virus, we propose several possible targets for antiviral drugs, which may provide new ideas for epidemic control and vaccine development. Keywords: 2019 novel coronavirus; pneumonia; SARS-CoV-2; Coronaviridae; COVID-19.
-
A novel disease, of unknown origin, causing a deadly pneumonia of human patients was reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province of China. Later called coronavirus disease (COVID-19), it rapidly spread across China and worldwide. Intensive research revealed that the etiological agent of the global COVID-19 pandemic was a novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). ⋯ The analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, especially the S gene, shows that natural evolutionary process between a bat-CoV and a pangolin-CoV or other animal coronavirus could have been important in creating SARS-CoV-2, with transmission of novel virus to the human population. On the other hand, new analyses indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is not a recombinant virus. Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; genome; bat coronavirus; pangolin coronavirus.