An overview of basic molecular biology of SARS-CoV-2 and current COVID-19 prevention strategies

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifests as extreme acute respiratory conditions caused by a novel beta coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is reported to be the seventh coronavirus to infect humans. Like other SARS-CoVs it has a large positive-stranded RNA genome. But, specific furin site in the spike protein, mutation prone and phylogenetically mess open reading frame1ab (Orf1ab) separates SARS-CoV-2 from other RNA viruses. Since the outbreak (February–March 2020), researchers, scientists, and medical professionals are inspecting all possible facts and aspects including its replication, detection, and prevention strategies. This led to the prompt identification of its basic biology, genome characterization, structural and expression based functional information of proteins, and utilization of this information in optimizing strategies to prevent its spread. This review summarizes the recent updates on the basic molecular biology of SARS-CoV-2 and prevention strategies undertaken worldwide to tackle COVID-19. This recent information can be implemented for the development and designing of therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2.