ABSTRACT
Novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease that has been recorded as a third global pandemic caused by the coronavirus (CoV) family in the past twenty years in the aftermath of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS). COVID 19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that is transmitted by person-to-person transmission and it remains asymptomatic or presented with mild flu-like symptoms in most occasions, while in some instances, it may progress to severe life threatening and potentially fatal illnesses. This disease is now imposing immense negative influences across the world due to the highly contagious nature of the disease as well as due to the absence of effective treatment targeting the disease. This review addresses the recent advances on the structure and genomic arrangement of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the viral entry, replication and virus-host protein interactome that potentially contribute to cell infectivity, immune evasion, and viral spread. Unveiling the details of such aspects of SARS-CoV-2, therefore, possibly has paramount importance for discovering therapeutic targets.