Novel corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic: current status and possible strategies for detection and treatment of the disease

ABSTRACT

Introduction

In December 2019, a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak occurred and caused the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), which affected ~ 190 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020.

Area covered

In the review, a comprehensive analysis of the recent developments of the COVID-19 pandemic has been provided, including the structural characterization of the virus, the current worldwide status of the disease, various detection strategies, drugs recommended for the effective treatment, and progress of vaccine development programs by different countries. This report was constructed by following a systematic literature search of bibliographic databases of published reports of relevance until 1 September 2020.

Expert opinion

Currently, the countries are opening businesses despite a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. The pharmaceutical industries are developing clinical diagnostic kits, medicines, and vaccines. They target different approaches, including repurposing the already approved diagnosis and treatment options for similar CoVs. At present, over ~200 vaccine candidates are being developed against COVID-19. Future research may unravel the genetic variations or polymorphisms that dictate these differences in susceptibilities to the disease.

KEYWORDS:

• Corona virus
• pandemic
• vaccine
• remdesivir
• hydroxychloroquine

Acknowledgement

The funding received from the Gujarat Institute for Chemical Technology (GICT), Gandhinagar for the establishment of Centre for Nanotechnology Research and Applications (CENTRA), Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (58/14/14/2019-BRNS/37020), Indian Council of Medical Research (35/9/2019-Nano/BMS) and seed grant from Ahmedabad University (AU/SG/SAS/DBLS17-18/03) is duly acknowledged. J. Shah and N. Yadav, respectively thank INSPIRE fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for providing Senior Research Fellowship.

Article highlights

• The zoonotic virus SARS-CoV-2 is spread across the world and affected more than ~25,000,000 people.

• Various clinical diagnosis strategies are developed to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection, such as RT-PCR, CT Scan, Point-of-care devices, etc.

• The World Health Organization has launched the ‘Solidarity’ clinical trial for COVID-19 treatment, including testing of favipiravir, remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, lopinavir, and plasma therapy, etc.

• More than 200 candidate vaccines are developed. Among them few are under clinical trials such as mRNA-1273, Ad5-nCoV, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, INO-4800-DNA, etc.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

The funding received from the Gujarat Institute for Chemical Technology (GICT), Gandhinagar for the establishment of Centre for Nanotechnology Research and Applications (CENTRA), Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (58/14/14/2019-BRNS/37020), Indian Council of Medical Research (35/9/2019-Nano/BMS) and a seed grant from Ahmedabad University (AU/SG/SAS/DBLS17-18/03) is duly acknowledged..