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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Journal of Cardiac Critical Care TSS 2020; 4(02): 121-131
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1721190
Review Article

Coronavirus and Homo Sapiens in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Pooja Natarajan
1  Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Muralidhar Kanchi
1  Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Vikneswaran Gunaseelan
2  Department of Research, Narayana Health City, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Alben Sigamani
2  Department of Research, Narayana Health City, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
,
Harmon James
3  Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
,
Belani Kumar
4  Department of Anesthesiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
› Author Affiliations Sources of Support None.
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Abstract

The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 globally claimed between 50 and 100 million lives. In India, it was referred to as “The Bombay Fever” and accounted for a fifth of the global death toll. The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), a new human-infecting β-coronavirus, has clearly demonstrated that the size of an organism does not reflect on its ability to affect an entire human population. 2019-nCOV, first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, spread rapidly globally. Disease in humans ranged from flulike symptoms to severe acute hypoxic respiratory failure. The virus appears closely related to two bat-derived severe acute respiratory syndromes (SARS) coronaviruses. Although bats were likely the original host, animals sold at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan might have been the intermediate host that enabled the emergence of the virus in humans. Under the electron microscope, the SARS-CoV-2 virus grips its receptor tighter than the virus behind the SARS outbreak in 2003 to 2004. The viral particle docks onto the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and initiates viral entry. This review discusses the various aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, its structure, pathophysiology, mechanism of interaction with human cells, virulence factors, and drugs involved in the treatment of the disease.

Keywords

antiviral treatment - coronavirus spike protein - cytokine storm


Publication History

Publication Date:
06 November 2020 (online)

© 2020. Official Publication of The Simulation Society (TSS), accredited by International Society of Cardiovascular Ultrasound ISCU. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

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