RESUMO
Recently discovered SARS-CoV-2 caused a pandemic that triggered researchers worldwide to focus their research on all aspects of this new peril to humanity. However, in the absence of specific therapeutic intervention, some preventive strategies and supportive treatment minimize the viral transmission as studied by some factors such as basic reproduction number, case fatality rate, and incubation period in the epidemiology of viral diseases. This review briefly discusses coronaviruses' life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 in a human host cell and preventive strategies at some selected source of infection. The antiviral activities of synthetic and natural polymers such as chitosan, hydrophobically modified chitosan, galactosylated chitosan, amine-based dendrimers, cyclodextrin, carrageenans, polyethyleneimine, nanoparticles are highlighted in this article. Mechanism of virus inhibition, detection and diagnosis are also presented. It also suggests that polymeric materials and nanoparticles can be effective as potential inhibitors and immunization against coronaviruses which would further develop new technologies in the field of polymer and nanoscience.
RESUMO
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first identified in China, December 2019. Since then, it has spread the length and breadth of the world at an unprecedented, alarming rate. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2, which causes COVID-19, has much in common with its closest homologs, SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV. The virus-host interaction of SARS-CoV-2 uses the same receptor, ACE2, which is similar to that of SARS-CoV, which spreads through the respiratory tract. Patients with COVID-19 report symptoms including mild-to-severe fever, cough and fatigue; very few patients report gastrointestinal infections. There are no specific antiviral strategies. A few strong medications are under investigation, so we have to focus on proposals which ought to be taken to forestall this infection in a living host.
