Abstract
Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 is the etiologic agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly contagious, emergent, acute, viral pneumonia that emanated sporadically in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. COVID-19 became a pandemic in February 2020, leading to 4,942,687 confirmed cases and over 321,987 deaths and grounding several economies around the world as of May 2020. Although global researchers, epidemiologists, virologists, and medical professionals rose steadily to contain the disease, in-depth knowledge of the virus and concerted efforts to combat it are still evolving. This research sought to elucidate the biological Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to SARS-CoV-2, with a view to understanding and devising holistic strategies to combat, mitigate, and overcome the scourge of COVID-19.
Highlights
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 is the etiologic agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly contagious, emergent, acute, viral pneumonia that emanated sporadically in Wuhan, China in December 2019
Some identified Strengths of SARS-CoV-2 include: The ability to effectively cross the species barrier and establish productive infection in humans; SARS-CoV-2 is a new strain of Coronavirus; three virulence factors (Nsp1, Nsp3c and ORF7a) interfere host’s innate immunity and immune escape; ORF8 and ORF10 proteins are uniquely associated with SARS-CoV-2; genetic fitness of the spike protein facilitates attachment and fusion; existence of polybasic cleavage site in the genome; SARS-CoV-2 has a short serial interval of 4.0 days; and the ability to resurge and enter into regular circulation after the initial pandemic wave
The Weaknesses include: Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the sole receptor for SARS-CoV-2; Host protease processing during viral entry is a significant barrier for several lineage B Coronaviruses; and SARS-CoV-2 critically requires Porphyrin to inhibit human heme metabolism
Summary
SARS-CoV-2 is the etiologic agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly contagious, emergent, acute, viral pneumonia that emanated sporadically in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In December 2019, a cluster of human pneumonia of unknown etiology that emanated post infection from Wuhan seafood market was found in patients with respiratory distresses in Wuhan, China and was first described by Dr Li Wenliang, an ophthamologist who eventually contracted 2019-nCoV from his glaucoma patient and died of COVID-19 at the Wuhan Central Hospital. [3] Following the criteria of International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) on naming newly discovered viruses, the etiology of the pneumonia was renamed as “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2) on February 11, 2020, while the associated disease was named by WHO as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Of the 2,258,488 closed cases, 1,936,501 (86%) have recovered and discharged while 321,987 (14%) have died. [7]
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