IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-18149-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ocular conjunctival inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 can cause mild COVID-19 in rhesus macaques

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Deng

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Linlin Bao

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Hong Gao

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Zhiguang Xiang

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Yajin Qu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Zhiqi Song

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Shuran Gong

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Jiayi Liu

    (Capital Medical University)

  • Jiangning Liu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Pin Yu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Feifei Qi

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Yanfeng Xu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Fengli Li

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Chong Xiao

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Qi Lv

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Jing Xue

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Qiang Wei

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Mingya Liu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Guanpeng Wang

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Shunyi Wang

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Haisheng Yu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Ting Chen

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Xing Liu

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Wenjie Zhao

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Yunlin Han

    (Peking Union Medical College)

  • Chuan Qin

    (Peking Union Medical College)

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly transmitted through the respiratory route, but potential extra-respiratory routes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission remain uncertain. Here we inoculated five rhesus macaques with 1 × 106 TCID50 of SARS-CoV-2 conjunctivally (CJ), intratracheally (IT), and intragastrically (IG). Nasal and throat swabs collected from CJ and IT had detectable viral RNA at 1–7 days post-inoculation (dpi). Viral RNA was detected in anal swabs from only the IT group at 1–7 dpi. Viral RNA was undetectable in tested swabs and tissues after intragastric inoculation. The CJ infected animal had a higher viral load in the nasolacrimal system than the IT infected animal but also showed mild interstitial pneumonia, suggesting distinct virus distributions. This study shows that infection via the conjunctival route is possible in non-human primates; further studies are necessary to compare the relative risk and pathogenesis of infection through these different routes in more detail.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Deng & Linlin Bao & Hong Gao & Zhiguang Xiang & Yajin Qu & Zhiqi Song & Shuran Gong & Jiayi Liu & Jiangning Liu & Pin Yu & Feifei Qi & Yanfeng Xu & Fengli Li & Chong Xiao & Qi Lv & Jing Xue & Qian, 2020. "Ocular conjunctival inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 can cause mild COVID-19 in rhesus macaques," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18149-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18149-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18149-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-18149-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gi Uk Jeong & Hyung-Jun Kwon & Wern Hann Ng & Xiang Liu & Hyun Woo Moon & Gun Young Yoon & Hye Jin Shin & In-Chul Lee & Zheng Lung Ling & Alanna G. Spiteri & Nicholas J. C. King & Adam Taylor & Ji Soo, 2022. "Ocular tropism of SARS-CoV-2 in animal models with retinal inflammation via neuronal invasion following intranasal inoculation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18149-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.