COVID-19 AND SARS-COV-2: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
Main Article Content
Keywords
COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Pandemic, Vaccines, Virus
Abstract
Currently, more than 500 million individuals have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and more than 6 million have died from this deadly virus in 222 countries. This mini-review sheds light on some of the important aspects of COVID-19 disease and the information that the researchers have gathered so far regarding epidemiology, virology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, variants of concerns, and vaccine development. We also summarize the timeline for the development of the disease and milestones achieved so far so that the readers can grasp the timing of some of these critical events. Notables are the rapid development and regulatory approval of diagnostics, antiviral medicines, and vaccines within a year of the virus's discovery. Because the development of understanding the mechanism of this viral infection and drug design occurred concurrently, we provide a chronology to help readers understand the progression of research findings as well as their interpretation. Scientists from across the globe are collaborating to combat this pandemic. This analysis also identifies future directions for research and development in these areas.
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20. Makarov, V., Riabova, O., Ekins, S., Pluzhnikov, N. & Chepur, S. Similarities and Differences Between Flu and COVID-19. Pathogens and Disease (2020).
21. Cai, Y. et al. Distinct conformational states of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Science (80-. ). (2020). doi:10.1126/science.abd4251
22. Yan, R. et al. Structural basis for the recognition of SARS-CoV-2 by full-length human ACE2. Science (80-. ). (2020). doi:10.1126/science.abb2762
23. Xu, X. et al. Evolution of the novel coronavirus from the ongoing Wuhan outbreak and modeling of its spike protein for risk of human transmission. Science China Life Sciences (2020). doi:10.1007/s11427-020-1637-5
24. Padhan, K., Parvez, M. K. & Al-Dosari, M. S. Comparative sequence analysis of SARS-CoV-2 suggests its high transmissibility and pathogenicity. Future Virol. (2021). doi:10.2217/fvl-2020-0204
25. Zhou, P. et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature (2020). doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7
26. Wrapp, D. et al. Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation. Science (80-. ). (2020). doi:10.1126/science.aax0902
27. Bertram, S. et al. Influenza and SARS-coronavirus activating proteases TMPRSS2 and HAT are expressed at multiple sites in human respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. PLoS One (2012). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035876
28. Breining, P. et al. Camostat mesylate against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19—Rationale, dosing and safety. Basic Clin. Pharmacol. Toxicol. (2021). doi:10.1111/bcpt.13533
29. Islam, M. A. et al. Prevalence and characteristics of fever in adult and paediatric patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A systematic review and meta-analysis of 17515 patients. PLoS One (2021). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0249788
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31. Shoer, S. et al. Who should we test for COVID-19? A triage model built from national symptom surveys. medRxiv (2020). doi:10.1101/2020.05.18.20105569
32. Menni, C. et al. Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19. Nat. Med. (2020). doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0916-2
33. Bajema, K. L. et al. Persons Evaluated for 2019 Novel Coronavirus — United States, January 2020. MMWR. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. (2020). doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6906e1
34. Alqahtani, J. S. et al. Prevalence, severity and mortality associated with COPD and smoking in patients with COVID-19: A rapid systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE (2020). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233147
35. Fang, L., Karakiulakis, G. & Roth, M. Are patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at increased risk for COVID-19 infection? The Lancet Respiratory Medicine (2020). doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30116-8
36. Shah, S. et al. Elevated D-dimer levels are associated with increased risk of mortality in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis. medRxiv (2020). doi:10.1101/2020.04.29.20085407
37. Russell, B. et al. Risk of COVID-19 death in cancer patients: an analysis from Guy’s Cancer Centre and King’s College Hospital in London. Br. J. Cancer (2021). doi:10.1038/s41416-021-01500-z
38. Cecconi, M. et al. Early predictors of clinical deterioration in a cohort of 239 patients hospitalized for Covid-19 infection in Lombardy, Italy. J. Clin. Med. (2020). doi:10.3390/jcm9051548
39. Imam, Z. et al. Older age and comorbidity are independent mortality predictors in a large cohort of 1305 COVID-19 patients in Michigan, United States. J. Intern. Med. (2020). doi:10.1111/joim.13119
40. CDC. COVID-19 Provisional Counts - Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics. (2021). Available at:
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41. Peckham, H. et al. Male sex identified by global COVID-19 meta-analysis as a risk factor for death and ITU admission. Nat. Commun. (2020). doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19741-6
42. Duarte-Salles, T. et al. Thirty-day outcomes of children and adolescents with COVID-19: An international experience. Pediatrics (2021). doi:10.1542/peds.2020-042929
43. Shane, A. L. et al. A pediatric infectious diseases perspective of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children. Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (2020).
doi:10.1093/JPIDS/PIAA099
44. Bialek, S. et al. Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Children — United States, February 12–April 2, 2020. MMWR. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. (2020). doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6914e4
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Published
Sep 20, 2023
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Beenish Khurshid, Saira Farman, Zahida Parveen, Mohammad Assad, Umia Shams, & Nosheen Faiz. (2023). COVID-19 AND SARS-COV-2: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR. Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology, 30(17), 1745–1760. https://doi.org/10.53555/jptcp.v30i17.2854
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Author Biographies
Beenish Khurshid
Department of Biochemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.
Saira Farman
Department of Biochemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.
Zahida Parveen
Department of Biochemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.
Mohammad Assad
Department of Biochemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.
Umia Shams
Department of Biochemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.
Nosheen Faiz
Department of Statistics, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, 23200, Pakistan.