Viruses are the smallest of all microbes and these cannot reproduce without infecting a host. They need to infect and hijack a susceptible cell in order to reproduce viral particles. Therefore, viruses are considered to be very unique as they have access to the cell machinery. Most viruses have either RNA or DNA as their genetic material, surrounded by a protective outer shell which is made up of protein. Some types of viruses contain an additional spikey envelope. The nucleic acid contains the genetic information necessary to program the synthetic machinery of the host cell for viral replication [ref. 1]. Once replication has been completed the virus particles leave the host by either budding or bursting out of the cell, which is called lysis of the cell [ref. 2].
On the basis of shared properties, viruses are grouped at different hierarchical levels of order, family, subfamily, genus and species. More than 30,000 different virus isolates are known today and grouped in more than 3,600 species, in 164 genera and 71 families [ref. 3].
The virus that plays a major role around the world nowadays, is the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is a single-stranded RNA virus and is identified as a beta-coronavirus. The virus attaches to cells by binding its outer spike proteins to the receptor protein ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2), which is highly expressed on respiratory cells. ACE2 also acts as the receptor for the human respiratory coronavirus NL63 and the SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Studies have shown that the binding affinity of the viral spike protein for ACE2 correlates with higher transmissibility of the coronavirus and contagiousness of the disease [ref. 4].
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