The Possible Role of Novel Coronavirus 2019 Proteins in the Development of Drugs and Vaccines

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Applied Virology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Research Center for Clinical Virology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

While the world has faced an epidemic disease resulted from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), a disease which has derived from a new coronavirus that has a high contagious power causing severe illness in some individuals that may even lead to death, no vaccine or special effective treatment has been offered yet. By noticing the genetic similarity between Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) and SARS-CoV viruses with SARS-CoV-2 and especially between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, the aim of this research was to express the proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus including the spike (S), nucleocapsid (N) and other proteins in the virus and their function in entering host cells, virus replication and production on one hand, and developing possible drugs that are effective in treating this coronavirus infection by targeting the above-mentioned proteins. On the other hand, the researchers are looking to offer a possible vaccine to prevent infection with this virus by using the proteins of this virus.

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