Systematic Comparison of Two Animal-to-Human Transmitted Human Coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV

Abstract

After the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the world in 2003, human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have been reported as pathogens that cause severe symptoms in respiratory tract infections. Recently, a new emerged HCoV isolated from the respiratory epithelium of unexplained pneumonia patients in the Wuhan seafood market caused a major disease outbreak and has been named the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This virus causes acute lung symptoms, leading to a condition that has been named as "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19). The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and of SARS-CoV caused widespread fear and concern and has threatened global health security. There are some similarities and differences in the epidemiology and clinical features between these two viruses and diseases that are caused by these viruses. The goal of this work is to systematically review and compare between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 in the context of their virus incubation, originations, diagnosis and treatment methods, genomic and proteomic sequences, and pathogenic mechanisms.

Comparative analyses of SAR-CoV2 genomes from different geographical locations and other coronavirus family genomes reveals unique features potentially consequential to host-virus interaction and pathogenesis

“…For the phylogenetic analysis, we compared the sequences of 6 SARS-CoV2 isolates from different countries namely, Wuhan, India, Italy, USA and Nepal along with other corona virus species (Figure 1). As reported earlier too (19,20), the virus from Wuhan showed higher similarity with SARS-CoV. There was no phylogenetic segregation of the genomes based on geographic origin, whether from the same continent or a neighboring country (Figure 1) but, ambiguously showing varied clustering like Italy and Nepal clustered together, followed by India and USA.…”

Clinical features of COVID-19 in elderly patients: A comparison with young and middle-aged patients

“…In addition, the proportion of lymphocytes decreased in 9 of the elderly patients, which was much higher than that of the young and middle-aged patients. It may be due to changes in the elderly's lung anatomy and muscle atrophy leading to changes in the physiological functions of the respiratory system, reduced airway clearance, 7 reduced lung reserve, 8 and reduced defense barrier function, 9 The level of C-reactive protein in elderly patients is significantly higher than that in the young and middle-aged group, which is similar to MERS-CoV. 10 In terms of imaging, the incidence of multilobe lesions in elderly patients is significantly higher than in young and middle-aged patients.…”

Coronavirus infections: Epidemiological, clinical and immunological features and hypotheses

“…The viral RNA is the largest genome known and it is between 26 to 32 kilobases in length. There are seven CoVs known to cause human disease, which are divided into low pathogenic and highly pathogenic CoVs [7,8]. Four coronaviruses (HCoVs, namely HCoV 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1), are known as non-severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like CoVs.…”