Characteristics of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 and related Therapeutic Options

Link to article at PubMed

Huang B, et al. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 2020 - Review.

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new type of pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. COVID-19 is affecting millions of patients, and the infected number keeps increasing. SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious, has a long incubation period, and causes a relatively high death rate, resulting in severe health problems all over the world. Currently there is no effective proven drug for the treatment of COVID-19; therefore, development of effective therapeutic drugs to suppress SARS-CoV-2 infection is urgently needed. In this review, we first summarize the structure and genome features of SARS-CoV-2 and introduce its infection and replication process. Then, we review the clinical symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options of COVID-19 patients. We further discuss the potential molecular targets and drug development strategies for treatment of the emerging COVID-19. Finally, we summarize clinical trials of some potential therapeutic drugs and the results of vaccine development. This review provides some insights for the treatment of COVID-19.

PMID:32665963 | PMC:PMC7311344 | DOI:10.1016/j.omtm.2020.06.013

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