COVID-19: Origin, Impact and Management (Part 2)

The SARS-CoV-2 virus-led COVID-19 pandemic jolted the whole world at different levels. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused death in severe cases leading to millions of mortalities. This chapter attempts to present an overview of the whole fiasco created by the spread of the virus along with the historical background, structural features and important proteins of the virus, modes of infection and transmission and different diagnostic means like viral and antibody tests. The authors have presented the latest statistical data on the number of cases and mortalities reported across the globe and also elaborated on the probable remedial interventions like the different antiviral, antimalarial drugs which are being explored for treatment and also explored the utility and applications of drug repurposing and computational strategies for drug development. The authors have also elaborated on the different vaccines developed to curb the disease and explained the development of COVID-19 vaccines for children. Overall the chapter has summarized key facts associated with COVID-19 in a nutshell and it may prove beneficial to the readers to understand the disease more clearly

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has caused serious mortal damage to the human race. The virus causes respiratory infections, and many studies are trying to comprehend the mode of spread and infection. This chapter has explained the origin of the virus, its structure and activity domain, symptoms, medicinal interventions, and particularly various modes of spread with emphasis on air pollution as contributing and facilitating factors assisted with favourable meteorological conditions, including temperature and relative humidity. Pieces of evidence from different countries suggest that the spread of the virus may be facilitated by air pollution and people who are exposed to high pollution levels are more susceptible to falling victim to the virus. Transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 may be facilitated by the airborne particulate matter, and both particulate matter and coronavirus cause oxidative stress in the body that helps in enhancing the susceptibility and severity towards respiratory infection. Not only ambient air pollution, but indoor air pollution (IAP) is also a factor worth considering. People in developing and under-developed nations are at high risk as they are exposed to high IAP levels. Awareness must be created to educate them about the associated harmful consequences, including the risk of catching the lethal COVID-19 infection. In the absence of any concrete medicinal solution, it is necessary to build immunity which may be uplifted by the usage of natural food sources, including herbs and spices. An overview of some commonly available herbs and spices of medicinal importance has also been given in the chapter. 

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is predicted to have long-term consequences on the world's physical, mental and economic levels. June 2020 Global Economic Prospects describe the immediate and near-term impact of the pandemic, additionally the long-term injury to growth prospects. The baseline forecast predicts a 5.2% contraction in world GDP, despite the efforts made by governments to combat the downswing aided by business and financial support. Half the world's 3.3 billion personnel are threatened by the loss of their jobs. Moreover, workers within the informal economy are significantly vulnerable as a result of the lack of social protection, access to quality health care and productive assets. Individuals are finding it troublesome to survive through imprisonment as a result of a lack of resources to earn a living. According to Moody, the economic impact of the recent increase in COVID-19 cases is going to be restricted from April to June quarter, with a robust rebound within the last half of the year. The slower growth rate, on the other hand, can impede nearterm economic recovery and have an impression on long-term growth dynamics. This study is focused on determining the critical effects of a Coronavirus pandemic on the global economy and anticipating the scenario that would confront the global economy soon. This research examines the various elements of Coronavirus and its economic implications.

SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to the COVID-19 pandemic, was first recognized in 2019. The impact of the crisis is never gender-neutral, and COVID-19 is no exception. While everyone is facing unprecedented challenges, women bear the brunt of the economic and social fallout of COVID-19. Hygiene and nutritional aspects are important parameters for the assessment of the overall health and well-being of a person. This chapter has shed light on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and how their sanitary/hygiene routine has been impacted in the current scenario. Through an online questionnaire survey with 510 women, the overall impact on their lives, including health and hygiene and nutritional practices, is presented as a case study. 69.4% of women reported spending some time on a physical fitness regime, and 66.2% of them believed that wearing a mask can reduce the risk of infection. 56.3% of women reported no side effects related to masks, however, 25.6% of women reported breathing issues whereas, skin rashes and itching and ear pain were some other symptoms reported. Women became more careful about their health during the pandemic, and 73.1% of them reported to have consumed additional measures to boost their immunity, and 74.4% of the women reported that their fruit intake increased during the pandemic. 52.2% of the respondents also reported consuming some health supplements. The awareness can be linked to educational status as the majority of respondents had university degrees, out of which 33.5% were graduates, and 30% were post-graduates.

The novel beta-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) emerged in 2019 in Wuhan from bats and later caused inter-human transmission. India is one of the worsthit countries, where two million casualties have taken place during the second wave of the pandemic. The year 2021 witnessed the more deadly form of the virus. At the same time, there was remarkable progress in vaccine development resulting in the approval of a few vaccines by the governments. The process of COVID-19 vaccination has kickstarted in many countries. The general attitude towards acceptance of the vaccine has been reported in countries like the USA and Jordan. Very few studies have reported the understanding and hesitation regarding the vaccination among the Indian population, and the present study is an attempt to highlight the general mindset, acceptance, misconceptions and awareness regarding the COVID-19 vaccination from the Indian perspective. Being one of the worst-hit countries in terms of COVID-19, it is important to identify the barriers holding the Indian population back from getting vaccinated. This study was done as a questionnaire survey aimed at knowing the general apprehension, and thoughts of the public regarding the vaccination with 308 respondents, precisely of Indian origin. 58.8% (n=181) respondents were nonvaccinated. 45.2% (n=95) respondents reported that their respective employers made vaccination compulsory. 51.5% (n=120) felt that the vaccine is 60-80% safe. The results may be used by the public health authorities to identify the priority group and the barriers holding people back from vaccination.

The global spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the disease COVID-19, has increased drastically since the first cases in Wuhan, People's Republic of China, at the end of 2019. There is no single drug that can be used specifically to treat COVID. The crucial stage in the drug development process is screening huge libraries of bioactive molecules against a biological target, usually a receptor or a protein. Virtual Screening (VS) has become a valuable tool in the drug development process as it allows for efficient in silico searches of millions of compounds, resulting in higher yields of possible therapeutic leads, and is cost-effective. The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus presents a major threat to world health and has resulted in a global crisis because of the high mortality rate and absence of clinically authorised treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. Finding effective drugs or repurposing available antiviral drugs is a critical need in the fight against COVID-19. VS can be classified as either Structural-Based Virtual Screening or Ligand-Based Virtual Screening. VS techniques have been widely applied in the field of antiviral drug design and have aided in the identification of new compounds as possible anti-viral drugs. Both LBVS and SBVS approaches have proved extremely helpful in identifying several prospective anti-viral drugs with nanomolar range. VS, in contrast to experimental approaches, is quick and costeffective on the one side but has low prediction accuracy on the other.

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a pandemic situation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), and dedicated medical research finding to cure the disease are rapidly evolving globally. SARS-Co- -2 is a highly mutating virus having various strains, till the reporting of this study, COVID-19 has 5 variants, i.e., Alfa, beta, gamma, delta, and omicron. A potential way for drug development is drug repurposing has got a lot of attention. Drug repurposing is the easiest and safest way to find out the drugs to cure COVID-19. Various new drugs have been discovered and are under clinical trial for the treatment of disease. Combinatorial treatments of COVID-19 patients give a very positive response in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. The various vaccine already has been developed to produce antibodies against COVID-19. However, a large number of research studies have been done on COVID-19. This study is dedicated to research on COVID-19 therapy by the repurposing of existing drugs and methods used for the drug repurposing.

The global health pandemic due to COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, affected and changed the world’s condition drastically. Herein, we evaluated the bioactivity of some phytochemicals as inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 M provirus (6LU7) using computational models. We reported the optimization of phytochemicals employing density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP/6-311G+(d,p) level theory. DFT calculations were employed to determine the free energy, dipole moment as well as chemical reactivity descriptors. Molecular docking has been performed against the SARS-CoV-2 M provirus to search the binding affinity and interactions of all compounds with the respective protein. The known drug, Chloroquine of SARS-CoV-2 main protease, was also docked to evaluate its binding affinity. Besides, the data from DFT, the docking studies predicted that flavonoids (Quercetin, Myricetin, Apigenin and Daidzein) have the least binding affinity and might serve as a potent inhibitor against SARS-CoV-2 comparable with the approved medicine, Chloroquine. The high binding affinity of flavonoids was attributed to the presence of hydrogen bonds along with different hydrophobic interactions between the flavonoid and the critical amino acid residues of the receptor. The DFT calculations showed that flavonoids have highlying HOMO, electrophilicity index and dipole moment. All these parameters could share a different extent to significantly affect the binding affinity of these phytochemicals with active protein sites.

The chapter defines the importance of immunity against COVID-19. The chapter describes the immunopathogenesis of COVID-19 and the way the body fights back and shows its immune response against the pathogen. Factors affecting immunity include ageing and obesity. The effect of the age factor has been visible in the suffering due to the coronavirus. The chapter also describes the nutritional factors that could boost immunity and enhance the immune response of the body against COVID-19. The major nutritional elements comprise vitamins and micronutrients, responsible for the biosynthesis of amino acids and strengthening of the defence system of the body. Natural products also play an important role in the enhancement of immunity against the coronavirus. The phytoconstituents present in plants play an active biochemical role in controlling COVID-19 symptoms. Vaccination has also helped in gaining acquired immunity against the COVID-19 pathogen and helped in developing herd immunity as well.