COVID-19
Since 2019, COVID-19 has become/been a major threat to global health.
Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 may have not only acute respiratory
distress syndrome [101], but also acute heart injury, heart failure,
inflammation leading to sepsis, and multiple organ dysfunction
[102]. As an RNA virus, its replication process is prone to
mutation. Although most structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 are conserved
in the corona virus family, the sequence similarity can reach 90%.
However, small sequence changes will have a huge impact on the structure
and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. For example, the N501Y substitution of
spike protein increases the binding affinity between RBD and ACE2
receptor in the structural proteins that make up SARS-CoV-2, thus
improving the transmission rate [103,104]. The P71L mutation of
envelope protein was statistically associated with disease severity and
mortality [105].