Emerging Viruses Besides the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Jessica Das Senjuti ◽  
Abrar Hamim Fayz ◽  
Afia Ibnat Ava ◽  
Priangka Bhattacharya Pingki ◽  
Rashed Noor
Keyword(s):  
Viral Infections ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Animal Cell ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Emerging Viruses ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
Model Animal ◽  
Respiratory Coronavirus

The emergence of deadly viruses is one of the epitomes of major global health threats. Currently the world is going through the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in extreme morbidity and mortality, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Besides, SARS-CoV-2, recent global perturbation caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection, dengue caused by dengue virus (DENV), zika virus (ZIKV) infection, etc. are worth being noted. Although an array of research on the genome sequences within spatial geographical locations, infectious components, viral transmissibility and dynamics, treatment strategies using in silico model, animal/cell culture, and patient trials of these emerging viruses is being conducted, the human population is still at risk of being exposed to the emerging and re-emerging viral infections posing a most dreadful threat to the global public health. Besides the genomic characterization and the proteomic studies for drug repurposing or repositioning as well as the possible candidate vaccine development, the general awareness among the mass public about the preventive care against these emerging viruses is also an important concern. Lots of works have been reported on SARS-CoV-2 since its commencement on December 2019. Besides the elucidation of the respiratory viruses, present review briefly pointed on the viruses from Flaviviridae family, Paramyxoviridae family, Filoviridae family and Bunyaviridae family

scholarly journals Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Origin, Impact, and Drug Development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaresh Mishra ◽  
Nisha Nair ◽  
Amit K. Yadav ◽  
Pratima Solanki ◽  
Jaseela Majeed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Therapeutic Option ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
High Sequence Identity ◽  
Drug Candidates ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The People ◽  
Health Organization

At the end of December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a rapidly spreading unknown virus was reported to have caused coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). Origin linked to Wuhan’s wholesale food market where live animals are sold. This disease is caused by SARS Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is closely related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This virus shares a high sequence identity with bat-derived SARS-like Coronavirus, which indicating its zoonotic origin. The virus spread globally, provoking widespread attention and panic. This Coronavirus is highly pathogenic and causes mild to severe respiratory disorders. Later, it was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its highly infectious nature and worldwide mortality rate. This virus is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genome, and its genome length about 26 to 32 kb that infects a broad range of vertebrates. The researchers worldwide focus on establishing treatment strategies on drug and vaccine development to prevent this COVID-19 pandemic. A drug repurposing approach has been used to identify a rapid treatment for the people affected by COVID-19, which could be cost-effective and bypass some Food and Drug Association (FDA) regulations to move quickly in phase-3 trials. However, there is no promising therapeutic option available yet. This book chapter addresses current information about the COVID-19 disease, including its origins, impacts, and the novel potential drug candidates that can help treat the COVID-19.

scholarly journals COVID-19: Characteristics and Therapeutics

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rameswari Chilamakuri ◽  
Saurabh Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Clinical Manifestations ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pharmacological Intervention ◽  
Multiple Treatment ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2), which suddenly emerged in December 2019 is still haunting the entire human race and has affected not only the healthcare system but also the global socioeconomic balances. COVID-19 was quickly designated as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization as there have been about 98.0 million confirmed cases and about 2.0 million confirmed deaths, as of January 2021. Although, our understanding of COVID-19 has significantly increased since its outbreak, and multiple treatment approaches and pharmacological interventions have been tested or are currently under development to mitigate its risk-factors. Recently, some vaccine candidates showed around 95% clinical efficacy, and now receiving emergency use approvals in different countries. US FDA recently approved BNT162 and mRNA-1273 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Inc. for emergency use and vaccination in the USA. In this review, we present a succinct overview of the SARS-CoV-2 virus structure, molecular mechanisms of infection, COVID-19 epidemiology, diagnosis, and clinical manifestations. We also systematize different treatment strategies and clinical trials initiated after the pandemic outbreak, based on viral infection and replication mechanisms. Additionally, we reviewed the novel pharmacological intervention approaches and vaccine development strategies against COVID-19. We speculate that the current pandemic emergency will trigger detailed studies of coronaviruses, their mechanism of infection, development of systematic drug repurposing approaches, and novel drug discoveries for current and future pandemic outbreaks.

scholarly journals Virus-Like Particle Systems for Vaccine Development Against Viruses in the Flaviviridae Family

Vaccines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wong ◽  
Jassey ◽  
Wang ◽  
Wang ◽  
Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Antiviral Treatment ◽  
Infected Mosquito ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Emerging Viruses ◽  
Virus Like Particle ◽  
Current Vaccine ◽  
Viral Particles ◽  
Animal Pathogens ◽  
Ideal Vaccine

Viruses in the Flaviviridae family are important human and animal pathogens that impose serious threats to global public health. This family of viruses includes emerging and re-emerging viruses, most of which are transmitted by infected mosquito or tick bites. Currently, there is no protective vaccine or effective antiviral treatment against the majority of these viruses, and due to their growing spread, several strategies have been employed to manufacture prophylactic vaccines against these infectious agents including virus-like particle (VLP) subunit vaccines. VLPs are genomeless viral particles that resemble authentic viruses and contain critical repetitive conformational structures on their surface that can trigger the induction of both humoral and cellular responses, making them safe and ideal vaccine candidates against these viruses. In this review, we focus on the potential of the VLP platform in the current vaccine development against the medically important viruses in the Flaviviridae family.

scholarly journals FIGHTING AGAINST GLOBAL HIV EPIDEMIC: AVAILABLE OPTIONS TO FOCUS ON

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 102-105
Author(s):  
Homa Nath Sharma ‘Raju’ ◽  
Sagar Baral ◽  
Yadav Baral
Keyword(s):  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Great Progress ◽  
Made In

HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 32 million lives so far. While great progress has been made in preventing and treating HIV, there is still much to do. A safe and cost-effective vaccine that prevents HIV infection is considered the best strategy for containing the epidemic. However; historically, the vaccine development for HIV prevention has been extremely difficult. Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) has improved the quality of life of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients worldwide. This reality suggests that continuing on HIV vaccine research, now we should also consider applying other short-term available prevention and treatment strategies to mitigate the effect of the epidemic.

Therapeutic Exploitation of Viral Interference

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imre Kovesdi ◽  
Tibor Bakacs
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Viral Vector ◽  
Antiviral Treatment ◽  
Type I ◽  
Virus Infections ◽  
Emerging Viruses ◽  
Viral Interference ◽  
Pathogenic Virus ◽  
Hepatitis C Rna

: Viral interference, originally, referred to a state of temporary immunity, is a state whereby infection with a virus limits replication or production of a second infecting virus. However, replication of a second virus could also be dominant over the first virus. In fact, dominance can alternate between the two viruses. Expression of type I interferon genes is many times upregulated in infected epithelial cells. Since the interferon system can control most, if not all, virus infections in the absence of adaptive immunity, it was proposed that viral induction of a nonspecific localized temporary state of immunity may provide a strategy to control viral infections. Clinical observations also support such a theory, which gave credence to the development of superinfection therapy (SIT). SIT is an innovative therapeutic approach where a non-pathogenic virus is used to infect patients harboring a pathogenic virus. : For the functional cure of persistent viral infections and for the development of broad- spectrum antivirals against emerging viruses a paradigm shift was recently proposed. Instead of the virus, the therapy should be directed at the host. Such a host-directed-therapy (HDT) strategy could be the activation of endogenous innate immune response via toll-like receptors (TLRs). Superinfection therapy is such a host-directed-therapy, which has been validated in patients infected with two completely different viruses, the hepatitis B (DNA), and hepatitis C (RNA) viruses. SIT exerts post-infection interference via the constant presence of an attenuated non-pathogenic avian double- stranded (ds) RNA viral vector which boosts the endogenous innate (IFN) response. SIT could, therefore, be developed into a biological platform for a new “one drug, multiple bugs” broad-spectrum antiviral treatment approach.

scholarly journals Fludarabine Inhibits Infection of Zika Virus, SFTS Phlebovirus, and Enterovirus A71

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 774
Author(s):  
Chengfeng Gao ◽  
Chunxia Wen ◽  
Zhifeng Li ◽  
Shuhan Lin ◽  
Shu Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Therapeutic Agent ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Rna Virus ◽  
Emerging Viruses ◽  
Enterovirus A71 ◽  
Ic50 Values ◽  
High Doses ◽  
Severe Fever

Viral infections are one of the leading causes in human mortality and disease. Broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are a powerful weapon against new and re-emerging viruses. However, viral resistance to existing broad-spectrum antivirals remains a challenge, which demands development of new broad-spectrum therapeutics. In this report, we showed that fludarabine, a fluorinated purine analogue, effectively inhibited infection of RNA viruses, including Zika virus, Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus, and Enterovirus A71, with all IC50 values below 1 μM in Vero, BHK21, U251 MG, and HMC3 cells. We observed that fludarabine has shown cytotoxicity to these cells only at high doses indicating it could be safe for future clinical use if approved. In conclusion, this study suggests that fludarabine could be developed as a potential broad-spectrum anti-RNA virus therapeutic agent.

scholarly journals Immune Response to Herpes Simplex Virus Infection and Vaccine Development

Vaccines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Ike ◽  
Chisom J. Onu ◽  
Chukwuebuka M. Ononugbo ◽  
Eleazar E. Reward ◽  
Sophia O. Muo
Keyword(s):  
Herpes Simplex Virus ◽  
Herpes Simplex ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Recombinant Dna ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
The Body ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Subunit Vaccines ◽  
Simplex Virus ◽  
Hsv Infections

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are among the most common viral infections and usually last for a lifetime. The virus can potentially be controlled with vaccines since humans are the only known host. However, despite the development and trial of many vaccines, this has not yet been possible. This is normally attributed to the high latency potential of the virus. Numerous immune cells, particularly the natural killer cells and interferon gamma and pathways that are used by the body to fight HSV infections have been identified. On the other hand, the virus has developed different mechanisms, including using different microRNAs to inhibit apoptosis and autophagy to avoid clearance and aid latency induction. Both traditional and new methods of vaccine development, including the use of live attenuated vaccines, replication incompetent vaccines, subunit vaccines and recombinant DNA vaccines are now being employed to develop an effective vaccine against the virus. We conclude that this review has contributed to a better understanding of the interplay between the immune system and the virus, which is necessary for the development of an effective vaccine against HSV.

scholarly journals RGD-Binding Integrins Revisited: How Recently Discovered Functions and Novel Synthetic Ligands (Re-)Shape an Ever-Evolving Field

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1711
Author(s):  
Beatrice S. Ludwig ◽  
Horst Kessler ◽  
Susanne Kossatz ◽  
Ute Reuning
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Imaging ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Treatment Protocols ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Elevated Expression ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Integrin Ligands

Integrins have been extensively investigated as therapeutic targets over the last decades, which has been inspired by their multiple functions in cancer progression, metastasis, and angiogenesis as well as a continuously expanding number of other diseases, e.g., sepsis, fibrosis, and viral infections, possibly also Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Although integrin-targeted (cancer) therapy trials did not meet the high expectations yet, integrins are still valid and promising targets due to their elevated expression and surface accessibility on diseased cells. Thus, for the future successful clinical translation of integrin-targeted compounds, revisited and innovative treatment strategies have to be explored based on accumulated knowledge of integrin biology. For this, refined approaches are demanded aiming at alternative and improved preclinical models, optimized selectivity and pharmacological properties of integrin ligands, as well as more sophisticated treatment protocols considering dose fine-tuning of compounds. Moreover, integrin ligands exert high accuracy in disease monitoring as diagnostic molecular imaging tools, enabling patient selection for individualized integrin-targeted therapy. The present review comprehensively analyzes the state-of-the-art knowledge on the roles of RGD-binding integrin subtypes in cancer and non-cancerous diseases and outlines the latest achievements in the design and development of synthetic ligands and their application in biomedical, translational, and molecular imaging approaches. Indeed, substantial progress has already been made, including advanced ligand designs, numerous elaborated pre-clinical and first-in-human studies, while the discovery of novel applications for integrin ligands remains to be explored.

Emerging viral diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 020-027
Author(s):  
Angel San Miguel Hernández ◽  
María San Miguel Rodríguez ◽  
Angel San Miguel Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Viral Diseases ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Emerging Viruses ◽  
Susceptible Population ◽  
Exponential Increase ◽  
Emerging Virus ◽  
Virus Model ◽  
Emerging Viral Diseases

Emerging viral diseases encompass two types, those of new appearance in the population and those that we previously knew about or re-emerging, but that at a certain moment present an exponential increase in incidence or geographic distribution in the form of epidemics or outbreaks. These emerging and re-emerging viruses share a series of characteristics that establish the emerging virus model, such as having an RNA genome, being zoonotic, transmitted by vectors and transmissible to humans, that the virus is able to recognize and provoke a response in receptors. Conserved in several species and inhabiting ecosystems that undergo ecological, demographic or social changes that favor the spread of the virus. There are different factors that contribute to facilitating the emergence of viral infections, although this is made up of three fundamental aspects such as the susceptible population, the virus itself and the environment where both can interact.

Coronaviruses: A Scientist’s Race Against Time

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saloni Chaurasia ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Alveolar Epithelial Cells ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Medical Innovation ◽  
Alveolar Epithelial ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
Respiratory Droplets

As the clock ticks, more and more people are falling victim to COVID-19, and scientists are racing against time to find treatment and prevention strategies. But what’s stopping them? The answer comes from two primary problems. Firstly, coronaviruses (CoVs) are transmitted from person-to-person via respiratory droplets from an infected person’s coughs or sneezes, which makes them highly contagious (CDC, How COVID-19 Spreads, 2020). This can happen in minutes, and up to 25% of patients remain asymptomatic (Du, et al., 2020). This makes it difficult for healthcare workers and researchers to contain patients and establish contact tracing to isolate the infected population. Secondly, it is hard to target CoVs without damaging our cells. CoVs infect via spike protein, which binds to the ACE2 receptor located on the lung alveolar epithelial cells (Hoffmann, et al., 2020). Once they invade the cell, CoVs hijack the host cell’s mechanisms to replicate. Thus, it is hard to combat the virus without damaging the host cell. On the other hand, recent understanding of CoVs structure and mechanism of action enables the scientific world to create a cure or vaccine. The bad news is that these efforts will likely face the perennial hurdles of medical innovation and discovery, long timelines of clinical trials for drug repurposing, and vaccine development, sometimes fickle funding, and changing governmental priorities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document