The human coronaviruses (HCoVs) and the molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection
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The human coronaviruses (HCoVs) and the molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection Luigi Santacroce 1
&
Ioannis A. Charitos 2
&
Domenico M. Carretta 3
&
Emanuele De Nitto 4
&
Roberto Lovero 5
Received: 5 September 2020 / Revised: 31 October 2020 / Accepted: 18 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract In humans, coronaviruses can cause infections of the respiratory system, with damage of varying severity depending on the virus examined: ranging from mild-to-moderate upper respiratory tract diseases, such as the common cold, pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. Human coronaviruses known to date, common throughout the world, are seven. The most common—and least harmful—ones were discovered in the 1960s and cause a common cold. Others, more dangerous, identified in the early 2000s and cause more severe respiratory tract infections. Among these the SARS-CoV, isolated in 2003 and responsible for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (the so-called SARS), which appeared in China in November 2002, the coronavirus 2012 (2012-nCoV) cause of the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) from coronavirus, which exploded in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia, and actually SARS-CoV-2. On December 31, 2019, a new coronavirus strain was reported in Wuhan, China, identified as a new coronavirus beta strain ß-CoV from group 2B, with a genetic similarity of approximately 70% to SARS-CoV, the virus responsible of SARS. In the first half of February, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), in charge of the designation and naming of the viruses (i.e., species, genus, family, etc.), thus definitively named the new coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2. This article highlights the main knowledge we have about the biomolecular and pathophysiologic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. Keywords Coronavirus . SARS-CoV-2 . Pandemics . Molecular biology . Immunity . Pathology . Human microbiota
Introduction
* Luigi Santacroce [email protected] 1
Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Microbiology and Virology Laboratory, University Hospital of Bari, Università degli Studi di Bari, p.zza G. Cesare, 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
2
Department of Emergency and Urgency, National Poisoning Centre, Riuniti University Hospital of Foggia, viale Pinto, 1, Foggia 71122, Italy
3
Syncope Unit at Cardio-Thoracic Department, Policlinico Consorziale, U.O.S. Coronary Unit and Electrophysiology/Pacing Unit, p.zza G. Cesare 11, Bari 70124, Italy
4
Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Section of Biochemistry, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, p.zza G. Cesare, 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
5
Clinical Pathology Unit, AOU Policlinico Consorziale di Bari Ospedale Giovanni XXIII, p.zza G. Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
In recent years, coronaviruses have been responsible for the two pandemics: that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS COVID-1), which began in 2002 and is currently at the end of 2019, following a new strain, the SARS-CoV-19 [1] The virus was first detected in th
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