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The COVID-19 Pandemic: SARS-CoV-2 Structure, Infection, Transmission, Symptomology, and Variants of Concern

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Application of Omic Techniques to Identify New Biomarkers and Drug Targets for COVID-19

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((PMISB,volume 1412))

Abstract

Since it was first detected in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world and affected virtually every country and territory. The pathogen driving this pandemic is SARS-CoV-2, a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus which is primarily transmissible though the air and can cause mild to severe respiratory infections in humans. Within the first year of the pandemic, the situation worsened with the emergence of several SARS-CoV-2 variants. Some of these were observed to be more virulent with varying capacities to escape the existing vaccines and were, therefore, denoted as variants of concern. This chapter provides a general overview of the course of the COVID-19 pandemic up to April 2022 with a focus on the structure, infection, transmission, and symptomology of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The main objectives were to investigate the effects of the variants of concern on the trajectory of the virus and to highlight a potential pathway for coping with the current and future pandemics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neuroproteomics, Department of Biochemistry and Tissue Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

    Paul C. Guest

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Paul C. Guest

  3. Laboratory of Translational Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Paul C. Guest

  4. Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India

    Prashant Kesharwani

  5. Research Department, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Bahrain, Adliya, Bahrain

    Alexandra E. Butler

  6. Biotechnology Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Amirhossein Sahebkar

  7. Applied Biomedical Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Amirhossein Sahebkar

  8. School of Medicine, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Amirhossein Sahebkar

  9. Department of Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Amirhossein Sahebkar

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    Paul C. Guest

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Guest, P.C., Kesharwani, P., Butler, A.E., Sahebkar, A. (2023). The COVID-19 Pandemic: SARS-CoV-2 Structure, Infection, Transmission, Symptomology, and Variants of Concern. In: Guest , P.C. (eds) Application of Omic Techniques to Identify New Biomarkers and Drug Targets for COVID-19. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology(), vol 1412. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28012-2_1

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