Date

2020

Abstract

The novel coronavirus that has recently emerged in Wuhan, China with probable bat origin is part of the betacoronavirus family which is similar to previously seen zoonotic based out breaks in the early 2000’s with SARS as well as in 2012 with MERS1. COVID-19 is the disease obtained from being infected by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, which enters through ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) cell receptors which is similar to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV uses the DDP4 (dipeptidyl peptidase 4) cell receptor1. SARS-CoV-2 shares approximately 80% of its genomic identity with SARS-CoV2. Currently, there is a lot research being conducted to understand how SARS-CoV-2 infects humans to be able to develop drugs and therapy options to treat the virus as well as produce a vaccine to protect the global population from becoming infected. Understanding how SAR-CoV-2 enters cells will be able to provide important information for vaccine designs and drug targets1. There are four main categories for therapies to treat viral drugs depending on the activity, which are: preventing the viral RNA synthesis and replication, blocking the virus from binding to human cell receptors, restoring the host’s innate immunity, and blocking host’s specific receptors or enzymes2. This review discusses current nonspecific antiviral drugs that are being explored for potential treatments, potential biotherapeutic and small molecule drug candidates, use of convalescent plasma and monoclonal antibodies as other therapies, and explore possible drug targets and computational studies currently in progress to able to develop specific antiviral drugs and vaccines.

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