Essential interpretations of bioinformatics in COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The currently emerging pathogen SARS-CoV-2 has produced the global pandemic crisis by causing COVID-19. The unique and novel genetic makeup of SARS-CoV-2 has been created puzzle in biological research, due to which the potential drug/vaccine candidates have not yet been discovered by the scientific community. Meanwhile, the advantages of bioinformatics in viral research had created a milestone since last few decades. The exploitation of bioinformatics tools and techniques has successfully interpreted this viral genomics architecture. Some major in silico studies involving next-generation sequencing, genome-wide association studies, computer-aided drug design etc. have been effectively applied in COVID-19 research methodologies and discovered novel information on SARS-CoV-2 in several ways. Nowadays the implementation of in silico studies in COVID-19 research has not only sequenced the SARS-CoV-2 genome but also properly analyzed the sequencing errors, evolutionary relationship, genetic variations, putative drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 viral genes etc. within a very short time period. These would be very needful towards further research on COVID-19 pandemic and essential for vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2 which will save public health.

Bioinformatics Accelerates the Major Tetrad: A Real Boost for the Pharmaceutical Industry

“…Multiple novel vaccines have been developed by different areas of the healthcare sector, constituting medicine, public health, biology, computer science researchers, and bioinformatics [141]. Multiple themes are associated with COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 research, from a biological perspective, comprising HTP technologies such as Next-generation sequencing for detection of SARS-CoV-2 genome, databases for storage of SARS-CoV-2 variants and genomes, and databases and software tools based upon bioinformatics approaches for the evaluation and investigation of interactions between host and virus [142].…”

“…However, it is essential to investigate the virological, epidemiological, and pathogenic data of SARS-CoV-2 in order to evaluate newer therapies and to promote the development of efficacious strategies to prevent the spread of the disease [149][150][151]. Bioinformatics strategies and tools have been utilized in the investigation of SARS-CoV-2 in order to minimize and control the negative impact of this pandemic, which has been observed to deteriorate the health of the population as well as the global socio-economic status [142].…”

“…The advancement NGS has optimized the intensity and scale of biomedical sciences. In the healthcare paradigm, during the condition of an outbreak or a pandemic, it is essential to effectively and rapidly identify the causative agent/pathogen responsible along with epidemiological surveys and analysis, which are essential to promote disease control reaction [142]. Furthermore, whole-genome sequencing (WGS), metagenomics strategy, and other high-throughput sequencing techniques promote the opportunity to obtain the full sequence of the disease-causing genome [142].…”

“…In the healthcare paradigm, during the condition of an outbreak or a pandemic, it is essential to effectively and rapidly identify the causative agent/pathogen responsible along with epidemiological surveys and analysis, which are essential to promote disease control reaction [142]. Furthermore, whole-genome sequencing (WGS), metagenomics strategy, and other high-throughput sequencing techniques promote the opportunity to obtain the full sequence of the disease-causing genome [142]. Metagenomics is a simple and economical technique that is independent of the reference sequence for analysis, unlike the in silico virus sequencing [142].…”

Bioinformatics helping to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 – Editorial

“…At the biological level, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 research involves several themes, including high-throughput technologies such as Next-Generation Sequencing for detecting the genome of SARS-CoV-2, databases storing SARS-CoV-2 genomes and variants, bioinformatics software tools and databases for analyzing and storing host–virus interactions [ 3 ].…”