Bechan Sharma
The authorities of Chinese authoritoies declared a pneumonia outbreak by an unknown virus at Wuhan of Hubei Province during December 2019,. The publication of the genomic sequence of a novel coronavirus (nCoV), the global scientific community jumped into conducting research on varied aspects of this function with great interest. This nCoV or 2019-nCoV was finally renamed as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus Type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by the Coronavirus Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the family: Coronaviridae, genus: Beta coronavirus , and subgenus : Sarbecovirus. This virus enters the human body through mouth, eye and nose. Finally, it reaches into the lung cells via binding of the S1 domain of spike protein with a host cell surface enzyme, angiotensin converting enzyme type 2 (ACE2) receptor. The entry process of this virus is facilitated by the serine protease TMPRSS2 for S protein priming. It has been observed that a TMPRSS2 inhibitor which has been approved for the clinical use can block the entry. Hence, it can serve as a potential therapeutic target and drug development. The SARS-CoV-2 has a positive single strand of RNA with genome size of 29.8 Kb encoding for 29 proteins using 3 open reading frames. After infecting the lung cells, it develops the disease, CoVID19. I would present an update about the structure and function of SARS CoV2, the diagnostic tools, antiCoVID19 agents and the therapeutic targets to combat CoVID19.
