Document Type : Review Article

Author

• Saghar Yousefnia

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) leading to COVID-19 has initiated a catastrophe for humans since December 2019. Genetic and protein similarities between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV2 offer the same treatments for both types of virus. However, there are some sequence or structural differences between SARS-CoV2 and SARS-CoV as well as other coronaviruses that make difficulties in discovering drugs and vaccines against this novel type of virus. Therefore, it is vital to recognize protein and genetic structures of SARS-CoV2 to discover drugs which directly target this strain of coronavirus. This review presents a perspective on SARS-CoV2, it’s genetic and protein structures with a brief comparison with other coronaviruses as well as summarizing some immune responses activated against SARS-CoV2. In addition, it introduces the novel strategies to combat with COVID-19 that would be potentially effective on SARS-CoV2.
 

Keywords

• Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2)
• Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
• Spike (S) glycoprotein
• Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)