COVID-19, SARS And MERS: Are They Closely Related?

Clinical Microbiology and Infection

Petrosillo, Nicola; Viceconte, Giulio; Ergonul, Onder; Ippolito, Giuseppe; Petersen, Eskild 

Abstract

Background

The 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is a new human coronavirus which is spreading with epidemic features in China and other Asian countries with cases reported worldwide. This novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is associated with a respiratory illness that may cause severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Although related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), COVID-19 shows some peculiar pathogenetic, epidemiological and clinical features which have not been completely understood to date.

Objectives

We provide a review of the differences in terms of pathogenesis, epidemiology and clinical features between COVID-19, SARS and MERS.

Sources

The most recent literature in English language regarding COVID-19 has been reviewed and extracted data have been compared with the current scientific evidence about SARS and MERS epidemics.

Content

COVID-19 seems not to be very different from SARS regarding its clinical features. However, it has a fatality rate of 2.3%, lower than SARS (9.5%) and much lower than MERS (34.4%). It cannot be excluded that because of the COVID-19 less severe clinical picture it can spread in the community more easily than MERS and SARS. The actual basic reproductive number (R0) of COVID-19 (2-2.5) is still controversial. It is probably slightly higher than the R0 of SARS (1.7-1.9) and higher than MERS (<1),. The gastrointestinal route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which has been also assumed for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, cannot be ruled out and needs to be further investigated.

Implications

There is still much more to know about COVID-19, especially as concerns mortality and capacity of spreading on a pandemic level. Nonetheless, all of the lessons we learned in the past from SARS and MERS epidemics are the best cultural weapons to face this new global threat.

Keywords

Coronavirus, COVID-19, Emerging infections, MERS, SARS

Human Coronaviruses: General Features

Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences
2019

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Xin Li, Hayes K. H. Luk, Susanna K. P. Lau, Patrick C. Y. Woo

Abstract

Human coronaviruses (HCoVs), including HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1, are traditionally known to cause symptoms of common cold with only moderate clinical impact. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), on the other hand, have strike humans in the past two decades as highly fatal human pathogens leading to considerable mortality and economic loss. This article summaries the updates on the structure, genome organization, replication and clinical features of human coronaviruses. Recent studies also shed light upon the zoonotic origin of emerging human pathogens including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, providing insight for future surveillance and intervention.

Keywords

Epidemiology, Genome, Human coronavirus, MERS, Replication, SARS, Structure

Discovery of N-(benzo[1,2,3]triazol-1-yl)-N-(benzyl)acetamido)phenyl) carboxamides as (SARS-CoV) 3CLpro inhibitors...

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Volume 23, Issue 22, 15 November 2013, Pages 6172-6177

Mark Turlington, Aspen Chun, Sakshi Tomar, Aimee Eggler, Valerie Grum-Tokars, Jon Jacobs, J. Scott Daniels, Eric Dawson, Adrian Saldanha, Peter Chase, Yahira M. Baez-Santos, Craig W. Lindsley, Peter Hodder, Andrew D. Mesecar, Shaun R. Stauffer

Abstract

Herein we report the discovery and SAR of a novel series of SARS-CoV 3CLpro inhibitors identified through the NIH Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN). In addition to ML188, ML300 represents the second probe declared for 3CLpro from this collaborative effort. The X-ray structure of SARS-CoV 3CLpro bound with a ML300 analog highlights a unique induced-fit reorganization of the S2–S4 binding pockets leading to the first sub-micromolar noncovalent 3CLpro inhibitors retaining a single amide bond.

Keywords

3CLpro, Severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, MERS, Coronavirus