Review Article: COVID-19: Strategies to Combat- Current and Impending targets

Abstract

At the end of year 2019, suddenly everyone is started talking about the Wuhan city of China, where a contagious virus SARS-CoV-2 jumps from bats to humans. It is one of the fastest spreading viruses, which spread around the globe in very few months. No country has been left untouched by this virus. Although there are number vaccines and preventive measures are available today. They check its spreading speed but it remains a great threat even today due to its properties of changing strains. According to covid tracker there are 482,551 confirmed deaths as on April 2026 in India alone and at world level it reaches to 7,114,028 . The most striking feature of all coronaviruses is that they transcribe and translate a polyprotein via ribosomal frameshifting. The spike protein (P). club‐like, pear‐shaped, or petal‐shaped structures that are projected from the virus body envelope is the potential target for strategies to develop a vaccine or drug to combat with this deadly virus. The TMPRSS2, another gene supposed to help the fusion process, may also be the other potential target. A protein known as cathepsin L, which holds the key for binding between the endosome and vesicle containing virus, necessary for virus activation. The other targets for therapeutic development are RNA dependent RNA polymerase and Protease. Chloroquine, remdesivir, protease inhibitor and Aptamer are also the molecules of choice. Reverse vaccinology as a technique to deal with it is also being considered. Moreover, we need to learn from its reservoir, how to cope with such deadly viruses and study their immunological and biochemical changes.