Table 1: Comparative features between SARS-CoV and CoV-2.
Features |
SARS-CoV-2 |
SARS-CoV |
References |
Cellular receptor |
ACE2 |
ACE2 |
[23], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31] |
Spike-ACE2 binding affinity |
10-20 fold higher than SARS-CoV |
Less than SARS-CoV-2 |
|
Furin cleavage site |
Prominent multi-basic furin cleavage site |
Monobasic cleavage site only |
|
Role of furin cleavage site |
Expansion of viral tropism, cell-cell fusion, enhances infectivity. Also cell specific. |
No prominent role found. |
|
Reservoir host |
Bat |
Bat |
|
Intermediate host |
Pangolin (in all probability) |
Civet cat |
|
Surface stability |
High. Upto a day or more in stainless steel and plastic. |
Less than that of SARS-CoV-2 |
|
Thermostability of spike (S) glycoprotein |
Low thermostability is speculated to lower energy barrier to exert conformational change of S protein |
Thermostability is comparatively high. |