Scientific Literary Essay

            SARS-CoV-2 or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 is a virus that is part of the coronavirus group. Coronavirus causes respiratory illness in which it causes cold or flu like symptoms and can sometimes lead to death to the people infected. The nose and mouth are the main ways that this virus enters the body and when it does it will in turn bind to proteins on human cells. The viral genome and proteins that come from the virus fusing with human cells make new viruses that either leave the cell to infect other cells or exit the body entirely through the mouth or nose.

            The fight against coronavirus was a quick one as scientists raced to construct a vaccine that would lessen the numbers of infected individuals. A vaccine is used to entice your antibodies to find and defend your body against the infection more quickly than it would normally. The Spike protein is key for binding to the human ACE2 receptor. ACE2 is a protein that creates other smaller proteins and regulates other body processes. The spike protein gives the virus its crown like appearance and fusing to the cell membrane where it will release its viral genome (Goodsell, 2020). SARS Variants of coronavirus have been seen to be more flexible than the original coronavirus, so it is easier to bind to receptors. This also makes it harder to construct a vaccine for variants. The cell receptors on the surface of human cells when not being bound by spike proteins have their own role. They receive chemical signals from signaling molecules to perform functions whether it be altering cell morphology and altering gene transcription or translation (Miller, 2021). There are multiple different types of signaling for human cells which can include autocrine, paracrine, and endocrine just to name a few.

            The spike protein is known to be versatile when it comes to its ability to bind the ACE2 receptor and infecting a cell in general. It has been seen however that occasionally the protein will change before it is ready and in turn will break down as a result. When the spike protein successfully binds the ACE2 receptor they alter their shape and fold in on itself (Fliesler, 2021). The shape change makes it harder to be noticed by antibodies within humans and increase how dangerous the virus is. Variants of corona virus will continue to pop up if there is no true way to eradicate it. The variants are monitored and named when they are discovered. One of these is the variant B.1.640.2 also known as the IHU variant. This variant has a few cases that have been discovered and multiple different mutations. Due to the large number of mutations, it has there can be potential problems for any country dealing with it (New Variant, 2021). Though it has a chance to cause problems for many countries the more variants there are the more likely the chance we can gain somewhat of an immunity.

            The coronavirus has altered the lives of many and changed how society operates so vaccine attempts were started immediately to combat it. There are a few main vaccines created that people have taken, and the results seem pleasing. Though they are not perfect, it doesn’t hurt for them to be made. There has been great progress in the attempt to stop it and eventually we’ll get to that point where the number of cases will level out.