IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/epw/ejbio0/v1y2020i6id17125.html

COVID-19: A Critical Review on Viral Biochemistry, Environmental Transmission, Therapeutics and Safety Measures

Author

Listed:
  • Roshni Kumari
  • Kumari Pragati Nanda
  • Hena Firdaus
  • Soumen Dey

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is declared pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) keeping in view its infection rate and toxicity level. The entire world is struggling hard to survive the prevailing health emergency. The authors realise the urgent need of contributing an overview of the present scenario to the researchers who are breathlessly trying to combat this pandemic situation. This review aimed at binding all the scattered data and research available till now on COVID-19 disease starting from its origin to transmission and spread through environmental factors till treatment and the safety measures that should be implemented. This article would possibly help the readers by providing an outlook of current scenario on various perspectives of COVID-19 disease at a single glance. The types, origin and toxicity caused are discussed in brief. The role of contaminated aerosols (viral-laden smoke from tobacco, cigarettes), wastewater, fomites, human and faecal matter are important in spreading the novel coronavirus in the environment. There is no specific treatment till date but clinical trials and diagnosis on several known drugs are on-going. The precaution and safety measures could hopefully reduce number of infections and mortality. The number of infected cases confirmed till 2 August 2020 was 17660523 with 680894 deaths in the world. We tried in this review article to summarize the scattered data available on biochemistry of SARS-CoV-2, environmental spread of virus and the safety measures to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Roshni Kumari & Kumari Pragati Nanda & Hena Firdaus & Soumen Dey, 2020. "COVID-19: A Critical Review on Viral Biochemistry, Environmental Transmission, Therapeutics and Safety Measures," European Journal of Biology and Biotechnology, European Open Science, vol. 1(6), November.
  • Handle: RePEc:epw:ejbio0:v:1:y:2020:i:6:id:17125
    DOI: 10.24018/ejbio.2020.1.6.125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejbio/article/view/17125
    File Function: Abstract page
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejbio/article/download/17125/4140
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.24018/ejbio.2020.1.6.125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert N. Kirchdoerfer & Christopher A. Cottrell & Nianshuang Wang & Jesper Pallesen & Hadi M. Yassine & Hannah L. Turner & Kizzmekia S. Corbett & Barney S. Graham & Jason S. McLellan & Andrew B. Ward, 2016. "Pre-fusion structure of a human coronavirus spike protein," Nature, Nature, vol. 531(7592), pages 118-121, March.
    2. Yan Hao & Ting Xu & Hongping Hu & Peng Wang & Yanping Bai, 2020. "Prediction and analysis of Corona Virus Disease 2019," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Min Jin & Zaky Hassan & Zhijie Li & Ying Liu & Aleksandra Marakhovskaia & Alan H. M. Wong & Adam Forman & Mark Nitz & Michel Gilbert & Hai Yu & Xi Chen & James M. Rini, 2025. "Human coronavirus HKU1 spike structures reveal the basis for sialoglycan specificity and carbohydrate-promoted conformational changes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Sumon, Md. Saidur Rashid & Shahinuzzaman, Md., 2025. "Social engagement, positive psychological attributes, and altruism among young people in Bangladesh," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    3. Khezar Hayat & Meagen Rosenthal & Sen Xu & Muhammad Arshed & Pengchao Li & Panpan Zhai & Gebrehaweria Kassa Desalegn & Yu Fang, 2020. "View of Pakistani Residents toward Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) during a Rapid Outbreak: A Rapid Online Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-10, May.
    4. Yu-Xi Tsai & Yu-Chun Chien & Min-Feng Hsu & Kay-Hooi Khoo & Shang-Te Danny Hsu, 2025. "Molecular basis of host recognition of human coronavirus 229E," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Rossana Mastrandrea & Fabio Montobbio & Gabriele Pellegrino & Massimo Riccaboni & Valerio Sterzi, 2025. "Leveraging Knowledge Networks: Rethinking Technological Value Distribution in mRNA Vaccine Innovations," Papers 2503.14072, arXiv.org.
    6. Rujeerapaiboon, Napat & Zhong, Yuanguang & Zhu, Dan, 2023. "Resilience of long chain under disruption," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(2), pages 597-615.
    7. Adam Goliński & Peter Spencer, 2021. "Modeling the Covid‐19 epidemic using time series econometrics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2808-2828, November.
    8. Massimo Florio, 2022. "To what extent patents for Covid-19 mRNA vaccines are based on public research and taxpayers’ funding? A case study on the privatization of knowledge [For Billion-Dollar COVID Vaccines, Basic Government-Funded Science Laid the Groundwork]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 31(5), pages 1137-1151.
    9. Muqrin A. Almuqrin & Mukhtar M. Salah & Essam A. Ahmed, 2022. "Statistical Inference for Competing Risks Model with Adaptive Progressively Type-II Censored Gompertz Life Data Using Industrial and Medical Applications," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(22), pages 1-38, November.
    10. Timothy J. C. Tan & Zongjun Mou & Ruipeng Lei & Wenhao O. Ouyang & Meng Yuan & Ge Song & Raiees Andrabi & Ian A. Wilson & Collin Kieffer & Xinghong Dai & Kenneth A. Matreyek & Nicholas C. Wu, 2023. "High-throughput identification of prefusion-stabilizing mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Geoffrey B. Hutchinson & Olubukola M. Abiona & Cynthia T. Ziwawo & Anne P. Werner & Daniel Ellis & Yaroslav Tsybovsky & Sarah R. Leist & Charis Palandjian & Ande West & Ethan J. Fritch & Nianshuang Wa, 2023. "Nanoparticle display of prefusion coronavirus spike elicits S1-focused cross-reactive antibody response against diverse coronavirus subgenera," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Kimmo Rantalainen & Alessia Liguori & Gabriel Ozorowski & Claudia Flynn & Jon M. Steichen & Olivia M. Swanson & Patrick J. Madden & Sabyasachi Baboo & Swastik Phulera & Anant Gharpure & Danny Lu & Ole, 2026. "Virus glycoprotein nanodisc platform for vaccine analytics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Dillon, Mary & Vauhkonen, Ilmari & Arvas, Mikko & Ihalainen, Jarkko & Vilkkumaa, Eeva & Oliveira, Fabricio, 2023. "Supporting platelet inventory management decisions: What is the effect of extending platelets’ shelf life?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(2), pages 640-654.
    14. Tugba Taskin Tok & Sivakumar J T Gowder, 2020. "An Updated Review on Covid-19 with Special Reference to Structural Elucidation and Functional Properties," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 31(4), pages 24345-24351, November.
    15. Shahzar Khan & Abdullah & Shah Faisal & Shah Faisal & Hazrat Usman & Rimsha Zainab & Faqeer Taj & Rahma Amrani & Muhammad Tayyeb, 2020. "COVID-19 - A brief overview on the role of Vitamins specifically Vitamin C as immune modulators and in prevention and treatment of SARS-Cov-2 infections," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 28(3), pages 21580-21586, June.
    16. Massimo FLORIO, 2021. "Patents for Covid-19 vaccines are based on public research: a case study on the privatization of knowledge," CIRIEC Working Papers 2103, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    17. Wan Imanul Aisyah Wan Mohamad Nawi & Abdul Aziz K. Abdul Hamid & Muhamad Safiih Lola & Syerrina Zakaria & Elayaraja Aruchunan & R U Gobithaasan & Nurul Hila Zainuddin & Wan Azani Mustafa & Mohd Lazim , 2023. "Developing forecasting model for future pandemic applications based on COVID-19 data 2020–2022," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(5), pages 1-26, May.
    18. Mo’tamad H Bata & Rupp Carriveau & David S-K Ting & Matt Davison & Anneke R Smit, 2022. "COVID-19 infected cases in Canada: Short-term forecasting models," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, September.
    19. Abdul-Rahim Mohammed, 2022. "Social Protection During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Time to Rethink Expanding Coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa?," European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, European Open Science, vol. 2(1), pages 72-79, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:epw:ejbio0:v:1:y:2020:i:6:id:17125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Support Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejbio .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.