An Overview on the Genomic Characteristics of the New Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and the Prospective in Pathogenesis and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection

Emergence of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection (coronavirus disease-2019 or COVID-19) in China since late 2019 and its global distribution has attracted a big international attention. As 2019-nCov is an emerging pathogen, extending our knowledge about the similarities/differences of this virus with other members of the Coronaviridae family, its genetic characteristics, and pathogenesis could be beneficial to develop better strategies of diagnosis, control, and treatment. This pandemic disease is still so new to be fully identified, and there is a long way ahead for complete characterization of SARS-COV-2 and its disease.

 In this study, we investigated the most recent publications from December 2019 to April 2020 on general and genetic features of SARS-COV-2, evaluating the results with primarily approved data about coronaviruses.

 Genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 comparing with primarily introduced species indicated high similarity with SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) indicating bat source of the emergence.

 Approving the molecular biologic and pathologic similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and previously studied viruses provides prospective for pathogenesis, therapeutics, and development of vaccines, which is more valuable in emergencies of this new pandemic infection.