biochemistry of the corona virus

the four types of corona

Yes....
Bet you didn't know this.

The corona virus are of four types
1- Alpha corona virus
2-Beta corona virus
3-Gamma corona virus
4- Delta corona viruses

The viruses were initially sorted into these groups based on serology but are now divided by phylogenetic clustering.

Alpha corona Viruses:

Alphacoronaviruses (Alpha-CoV) are the first of the four genera, Alpha-, Beta-, Gamma-, and Deltacoronavirus in the subfamily Coronavirinae of the family Coronaviridae. Coronaviruses are enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses that include both human and zoonotic species. Within this subfamily, viruses have spherical virions with club-shaped surface projections and a core shell. The name is from the Latin corona, meaning crown, which describes the appearance of the projections seen under electron microscopy that resemble a solar corona. This genus contains what were previously considered phylogroup 1 corona viruses.

Beta corona viruses

Betacoronaviruses (β-CoVs or Beta-CoVs) are one of four genera of coronaviruses of the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae in the family Coronaviridae, of the order Nidovirales. They are enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses of zoonotic origin. The coronavirus genera are each composed of varying viral lineages with the betacoronavirus genus containing four such lineages. In older literature, this genus is also known as group 2 coronaviruses.

Gamma corona viruses

Coronaviruses infect both animals and humans. While the alpha and beta genera are derived from the bat gene pool, the gamma and delta genera are derived from the avian and pig gene pools. Gamma-CoV also known as coronavirus group 3 are the avian coronaviruses.

Delta corona viruses

The diarrhea caused by delta corona virus is similar to porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) but at a very low severity. This is found in pigs.

The diarrhea caused by Delta corona virus is similar to porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) but at a very low severity. The virus damages the villi in the gut and thus reduces the absorbing surface, leading to fluid loss and dehydration. Antibodies from colostrum protect piglets.

Acute outbreaks occur when piglets are from 3 to 5 weeks old, and mortality varies widely. Its clinical presentation is similar to that of other coronaviruses (PED and TGE).

Symptoms

Sows

Varies from a mild (consistency similar to cow feces) to very watery diarrhea.

Loose stools.

Vomiting.

Nursing piglets

Diarrhea.

Vomiting.

Dehydration.

Mortality can be high especially in piglets less than 14 days old.

Nursery and fattening

Acute watery diarrhea without blood or mucus.

Low mortality.

Vomiting

Causes / Contributing Factors

The disease can spread as new, susceptible pigs enter into the fattening stage farm or sow farm.

The disease is usually seen only when the virus first enters the farm, especially after PED.

Diagnosis

Suspected by clinical signs, but cannot be differentiated from TGE and PED. The presence of the organism is confirmed by PCR. 

Control/Prevention

Because it is a viral infection there is no specific treatment.

Very good biosecurity on the farm must be maintained.

If the virus enters the farm for the first time it is important to make sure that all adult animals are infected at the beginning to allow immunity to develop. This can be achieved by exposing the sows through drinking water by mixing diarrhea or contaminated material in a bucket with water and using it as a source of infection.

The growing pig normally recovers without treatment unless there are concurrent diseases such as swine dysentery. In such cases it may be necessary to use antibiotics in the water or preventive medications in the feed.

All in / all out systems with disinfectants often break the disease cycle.

The virus is easily eliminated by phenolic disinfectants, with chlorine, peroxides, aldehydes.

Cracking the Genetic Code

At this point, health care experts don’t know if exposure to the virus will help the body develop immunity to it. They also aren't certain if this virus will continue to circulate, like MERS, or effectively disappear, like SARS. “We don’t know exactly what part of the virus to build a vaccine against,” Swartzberg adds. “We have some ideas, but there is a long way to go to build a vaccine.”

However, science gets closer every day. On March 2, a research team that included the University of Chicago, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and the University of California—Riverside School of Medicine announced they may have found a potential drug target.

They identified a newly mapped protein of SARS-CoV-2 that is 89% identical to the protein from the earlier outbreak of SARS-CoV. Earlier studies showed that inhibiting that protein can slow viral replication, so a drug that does that in this new virus could be effective.