ABSTRACT
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic made the 21st century unforgettable. This biological threat resulted in enormous disasters to mankind, including tremendously high rates of mortality and diminishing socioeconomic conditions throughout the world. In this context, the popularization of omics-based approaches, specifically in silico biology and artificial intelligence (AI), have been explored widely to find out appropriate intervention strategies against COVID-19. This chapter will primarily focus on the use of computational methods to analyze the origin and phylogeny of different pathogenic coronaviruses, the structural diversity of spike proteins and their interaction efficiency with angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) from different hosts, and human toll-like receptors (TLRs). The involvement of TLR4 in coronavirus-induced inflammatory consequences is a pathbreaking finding, and intriguingly this has guided the development of new therapeutic strategies (i.e., TLR4-targeted chemotherapy and immunotherapy), which will be incorporated in this chapter as well. In particular, a number of phytochemicals and repurposing drugs with potential anti-corona effects as well as peptides/chemical compounds have already been screened for targeting TLR4–spike protein interactions utilizing the in silico approaches. Interestingly, the clues obtained from TLR4–spike protein interactions also guided the design of a peptide-based multi-epitope vaccine (AbhiSCoVac) that is expected to work as a universal vaccine against most coronaviruses. The major hallmark of COVID-19 pathogenesis is the “cytokine storm,” which causes multiorgan failure and death. In this regard, the possible efficacy of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has been postulated as the possible solution. Omics-based technology eventually directed the design of efficacious chimeric antibodies by combining the CDRH3 of regdanvimab with sotrovimab, which has the potential to stop newly emerged pathogenic strains of SARS-CoV-2, such as Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Delta plus strains. Taken en masse, this chapter aims to enlighten readers about the use and relevance of omics-directed strategies to understand the basic biology of SARS-CoV-2 and develop therapeutic intervention strategies by reviewing the significant contributions made by different researchers across the globe.
