Current advance of basic and clinical medical virology

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by a novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become the worst pandemic and public health crisis across the globe once a century. This pandemic has caused huge losses in both human lives and global economy. Innate immunity is the first line of defense against pathogenic invasions. Extensive studies by scientists in China and the world have reported that SARS-CoV-2 can employ multiple strategies to evade host innate immunity, and such immune evasion mechanisms have become critical contributing factors for the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2. On the other hand, the pathogenesis of COVID-19 has been found to be closely relevant with the pro-inflammatory responses induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans. This paper provides a brief review to the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and innate immunity as well as inflammation.