Evolução de SARS-CoV-2 e seu impacto na pandemia

Abstract

The coronavirus is a type of virus in the Coronaviridae family, being the most diverse within the Nidovirales order. The new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV- 2) is a highly contagious and pathogenic coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 and caused a pandemic of acute respiratory illness known as "coronavirus 2019" (COVID 19), a threat to human health and public safety. On December 31st, 2021, there were 198 million positive cases and 3.5 million deaths in the world, in Brazil alone, we had 14,611,740 positive cases and 424,107 deaths. SARS-CoV-2 is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus, whose genetic material is represented by a single molecule of positive sense RNA (RNA+). Approximately 29 different viral proteins are identified, among them the most important are the spike glycoprotein, recognized as the S protein, and the N protein, of the viral nucleocapsid. The spike glycoprotein allows the virus to enter the host cell by binding to the cell receptor and fusing into the membrane. Thousands of SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge every day around the world, highlighting the challenges of bolstering timely detection, expanding and strengthening epidemiological surveillance, laboratory surveillance and communication. Quickly, as health research evolves, measures to prevent and control the pandemic can be supported by COVID-19. Tool like NGS and PCR can strengthen global genome surveillance networks as one of the measures to fund the global control of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this review, we describe the basic virology of SARS-CoV-2, including genomic features and receptor use, highlighting its main differences from previously known coronaviruses and ribonucleic acid viruses. We also highlighted the role of genomic surveillance in combating the pandemic primarily in identifying of new strains and genetic mutations of the virus. We still address the most worrisome variants described as: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Ômicron and the variants of interest called: Mu and Lambda and their impact on the course of the pandemic.