Characteristics and Therapeutic Options of the Coronavirus Disease 2019

Abstract The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new type of pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. COVID-19 is affecting millions of patients and the infected number keeps increasing. SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious, has a long incubation period, and causes a relatively high death rate, resulting in severe health problem all over the world. Currently there is no effective proven drugs for the treatment of COVID-19, therefore, development of effective therapeutic drugs to suppress SARS-CoV-2 infection is urgently needed. In this review, we first summarize the structure and genome features of SARS-CoV-2, and introduce its infection and replication process. Then we review the clinical symptoms, diagnosis and treatment options of COVID-19 patients. We further discuss the potential molecular targets and drug development strategies for treatment of the emerging COVID-19. Finally, we summarize clinical trials of some potential therapeutic drugs and the results of vaccine development. This review provides some insights for the treatment of COVID-19.