Investigation of the Molecular Structure of SARS-CoV-2 Virus and Related Drugs

COVID-19 is one of the most important viral diseases of the current decade which caused widespread pandemic around the globe. The disease was first reported on December 8, 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in the patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). On January 7, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China identified the virus and it was named 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO). The name of the disease was later changed to COVID-19. According to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) data, the virus is called SARS-CoV-2 which belongs to the Coronaviridae family. The viruses of this family have had widespread outbreaks in several different countries in 2003 (SARS disease) and 2013 (MERS disease) and have led to death and economic loss.

In the present study, the disease was studied from various aspects of the evolutionary process and molecular biology of the virus. The articles were studied based on the information contained in the World Health Organization (WHO) database. SARS-CoV-2 proteins were identified molecularly and functionally using data analysis and bioinformatics methods, and then related drugs and their effects on virus replication were investigated.

Studies on the structure of the virus and drug therapies to curb the progression of the disease showed that the use of different drug strategies is effective in treating the disease depending on the extent of the disease. Molecular studies have shown that the use of drugs that inhibit viral proteases and nucleoside analogues in the course of the disease and IVIG drug therapies, aminoquinoline compounds, TMPRSS2 inhibitors and virus S protein can be effective in the early stages of disease.

The present study showed that in order to control this virus, it is very important to study the structure of the virus and its biology in the body. It is essential to identify the drugs that affect the virus based on the biological structure of the virus. Due to the structural changes of the virus and successive mutations in the virus genome and the emergence of resistant strains or highly contagious strains, further studies on the structure of the virus and its changes in the body are essential in designing drug and treatment strategies. The present study showed that the use of therapeutic and pharmacological strategies varies according to the stage of the disease, so that some drugs in the early stages of the disease prevent the virus from entering the target cells or in combination with viral surface glycoproteins, prevent the viral antigen from binding to receptors to the host cells. In the advanced stages of the disease, antiviral drugs, including protease inhibitors and nucleoside analogues, interfere with the replication and structure of the virus. Due to intermittent changes in the virus and the development of drug-resistant viruses, it is important to continuously review virological and clinical studies and the performance of existing drugs against the virus.