The human coronaviruses (HCoVs) and the molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
J Mol Med (Berl)
; 99(1): 93-106, 2021 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-956167
ABSTRACT
In humans, coronaviruses can cause infections of the respiratory system, with damage of varying severity depending on the virus examined ranging from mild-to-moderate upper respiratory tract diseases, such as the common cold, pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. Human coronaviruses known to date, common throughout the world, are seven. The most common-and least harmful-ones were discovered in the 1960s and cause a common cold. Others, more dangerous, identified in the early 2000s and cause more severe respiratory tract infections. Among these the SARS-CoV, isolated in 2003 and responsible for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (the so-called SARS), which appeared in China in November 2002, the coronavirus 2012 (2012-nCoV) cause of the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) from coronavirus, which exploded in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia, and actually SARS-CoV-2. On December 31, 2019, a new coronavirus strain was reported in Wuhan, China, identified as a new coronavirus beta strain ß-CoV from group 2B, with a genetic similarity of approximately 70% to SARS-CoV, the virus responsible of SARS. In the first half of February, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), in charge of the designation and naming of the viruses (i.e., species, genus, family, etc.), thus definitively named the new coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2. This article highlights the main knowledge we have about the biomolecular and pathophysiologic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
J Mol Med (Berl)
Journal subject:
Molecular Biology
/
Genetics, Medical
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S00109-020-02012-8
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