Online ISSN: 2515-8260

QUICK REVIEW ON THE MERS-COV, SARS-COV AND SARSCOV-2 CORONAVIRUS

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Sukrit Srivastava1 ,Sailesh Narayan2

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The human coronaviruses was first identified in mid 1960s. Coronavirus are subgrouped in alpha, beta, gamma & delta. Severe Acute Respiratory SyndromeCoronavirus (SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) & Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus(MERS-CoV) are included in Beta coronaviruses (SharifiMood 2015; Ksiazek etal., 2003, Cho et al., 2016., Kim et al., 2015). Coronaviruses are viruses thatbelong to the subfamily of Coronavirinae in the family of Coronaviridae, causesthe common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome; they are well known tocause disease in humans and animals including himalayan palm civets, raccoon,monkeys, dogs, cats, dogs, and rodents. MERS-CoV is genetically distinct fromthe SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, which has emerged as a pandemic in the last decade and appearsto behave differently (Baseler et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2015). Incidence of Humancoronaviruses infection among infants is highest during the winter and earlyspring seasons.Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a syndrome affecting upperrespiratory system and is caused by Middle East Respiratory SyndromeCoronavirus (MERS-CoV). MERS cases high fever, chills, chest pain, bodyaches, cough, breathing problem, sore throat, diarrhoea, renal failure, pneumonia,nausea/vomiting and running nose. First case of MERS to human was reported inyear 2012 in Saudi Arabia. After 2012 MERS-CoV infection has been reportedfrom 27 countries only within 4 years (WHO report: 2016). Till present threeMERS outbreaks have taken place in Saudi Arabia (2013, 2014) and in SouthKorea (2015) (Assiri et al., 2013; Oboho et al., 2015; Park et al., 2015). Outbreakreported in South Korea was reported to have fatality rate as high as 40%, and italso involved spreading of MERS while hospital-to-hospital transit of patients.High attack rate and easy spreading means has put MERS disease at risk of anepidemic (Kim et al., 2015; Ki., 2015; WHO Emergencies preparedness,response, 2015). Till date no specific vaccine is available against MERS. There isan urgent need for specific and safe MERS vaccine keeping in mind the steepincrease of MERS cases and it’s high mortality rate. As far now the pathogenesisof MERS-CoV is largely unknown. Hence, an immunoinformatics approach tothoroughly study and screen potential immunogenic proteins from availableproteome sequence data of MERS-CoV is very essential for vaccine development.SARS started off in the Guangdong Province in southern China in themonth of November 2002. Eventually it reached Hong Kong, from where itrapidly spread around the world, infecting people in 37 countries (Hsieh et al.,2015., Kong et al., 2015). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARSCoV)causes a severe form of upper respiratory track disorder called the Severeacute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The SARS infection is highly contagious andis prominently characterized by breathing difficulties, high fever, dry cough, andpneumonia. SARS is endemic in southern China. In the year 2003, the SARSoutbreak in south China caused 8098 people sick and 774 dead. Eventually, SARShas now reported to spread around the world, infecting people in 37 countries(Zhong et al, 2003; Booth et al., 2003; Leung et al., 2003; CDC report; 2018).Even though there is an urgent need to develop a specific SARS vaccine, till datethere is no specific and safe vaccine against SARS. Pathogenesis mechanism ofSARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 being still largely unknown the immunoinformatics approach todesign and develop an epitope-based specific vaccine against SARS would be anessential step forward.

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