Journal of Cell Science & Therapy
Open Access

The coronavirus causing COVID-19 was unknown until a few months ago.So little information available here.The coronavirus virion is an enveloped particle containing the spike (S), membrane (M), and envelope (E) proteins. The genome of coronaviruses is a linear, single-stranded RNA molecule of positive (mRNA) polarity, and from 28 to 32 kb in length within the virion, the genome is encapsidated by multiple copies of the nucleocapsid protein (N), and has the conformation of a helical RNA/nucleocapsid structure. The S protein has been a focus of pathogenesis studies in mice because it appears to be the critical determinant of cell tropism, species specificity, host selection, cell tropism, and disease.The understanding of the region of the S1 component of coronavirus that binds to receptors was the basis for studies leading to the very recent and very rapid identification of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2) as a receptor for SCoV. To be clear, SARS-CoV-2 is not the flu. It causes a disease with different symptoms, spreads and kills more readily, and belongs to a completely different family of viruses. This family, the coronaviruses, includes just six other members that infect humans. Four of them-OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E—have been gently annoying humans for more than a century, causing a third of common colds. The other two—MERS and SARS (or “SARS-classic,” as some virologists have started calling it)—both cause far more severe disease.