COVID‐19: Virology, biology and novel laboratory diagnosis

Mohamadian, Malihe; Chiti, Hossein; Shoghli, Alireza; Biglari, Sajjad; Parsamanesh, Negin; Esmaeilzadeh, Abdolreza

BACKGROUND: At the end of December 2019, a novel coronavirus tentatively named SARS‐CoV‐2 in Wuhan, a central city in China, was announced by the World Health Organization. SARS‐CoV‐2 is an RNA virus that has become a major public health concern after the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome‐CoV (MERS‐CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome‐CoV (SARS‐CoV) in 2002 and 2012, respectively. As of 29 October 2020, the total number of COVID‐19 cases had reached over 44 million worldwide, with more than 1.17 million confirmed deaths. DISCUSSION: SARS‐CoV‐2 infected patients usually present with severe viral pneumonia. Similar to SARS‐CoV, the virus enters respiratory tract cells via the angiotensin‐converting enzyme receptor 2. The structural proteins play an essential role in budding the virus particles released from different host cells. To date, an approved vaccine or treatment option of a preventive character to avoid severe courses of COVID‐19 is still not available. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, we provide a brief review of the general biological features of CoVs and explain the pathogenesis, clinical symptoms and diagnostic approaches regarding monitoring future infectivity and prevent emerging COVID‐19 infections.