COVID-19: The biology behind the virion

Coronaviruses are positive-sense RNA viruses with crown-like morphology. This family of virus is known to cause outbreak in many species including humans. The pandemic caused by novel coronavirus COVID-19 is reported to have been spread from bats to human. These groups of emerging zoonotic pathogens bind to the host cell through receptor-mediated mechanism. As the viruses lack proper machinery for self-replication, they depend on the host cell for replication. The resulting viremia causes most common clinical symptoms such as fever, cough progressing to shortness of breath. The number of cases reported from COVID-19 is on the rise since diagnosis. The development of drugs and vaccines is under trial for the management of the novel viral infection.