Progress in understanding COVID-19: insights from the omics approach

Abstract

Sequencing the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome is a crucial task for controlling the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, elucidating the pathological mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 in humans has been challenging. A comprehensive analysis of the molecular characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and molecular changes in COVID-19 patients may have practical significance in developing assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 and formulating clinical treatment strategies against COVID-19. The omics approach for studying biochemical mechanisms can be used to elucidate the molecular characteristics and pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2. The omics-scale research on COVID-19 has been carried out rapidly, bringing hope for developing a robust diagnostic assay, discovering reliable biomarkers to assess disease progression, and developing therapeutic drugs and vaccines. In this review, we summarize, from an omics perspective, the strategies for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigens and antibodies against the virus, the metabolomic and proteomic changes in COVID-19 patients, and the progress of research on anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs with their potential clinical applications.

Keywords:

• SARS-CoV-2
• COVID-19
• system biology
• omics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by The National Science and Technology Major Project of China under [Grant 2018ZX10302205]; Guangdong Province Major Key Projects of Industrial Technology under [Grant 201902010003]; Emergency Scientific Research Project for Prevention and Control of COIVD-19 of Liaoning Province under Grant 4th batch; And The 345 Talent Project of Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University under Grant 50A. There was no participation of funders in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.