Eriksen Anne Z, Møller Rasmus, Makovoz Bar, Uhl Skyler A, tenOever Benjamin R, Blenkinsop Timothy A
Department of Cell Development and Regenerative Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA; Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA; Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby 2800, Denmark.
Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA.
Cell Stem Cell. 2021 Jul 1;28(7):1205-1220.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2021.04.028. Epub 2021 May 17.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused unparalleled disruption of global behavior and significant loss of life. To minimize SARS-CoV-2 spread, understanding the mechanisms of infection from all possible routes of entry is essential. While aerosol transmission is thought to be the primary route of spread, viral particles have been detected in ocular fluid, suggesting that the eye may be a vulnerable point of viral entry. To this end, we confirmed SARS-CoV-2 entry factor and antigen expression in post-mortem COVID-19 patient ocular surface tissue and observed productive viral replication in cadaver samples and eye organoid cultures, most notably in limbal regions. Transcriptional analysis of ex vivo infected ocular surface cells and hESC-derived eye cultures revealed robust induction of NF-κB in infected cells as well as diminished type I/III interferon signaling. Together these data suggest that the eye can be directly infected by SARS-CoV-2 and implicate limbus as a portal for viral entry.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）大流行对全球行为造成了前所未有的破坏，并导致了重大生命损失。为了尽量减少SARS-CoV-2的传播，了解病毒从所有可能的进入途径的感染机制至关重要。虽然气溶胶传播被认为是主要传播途径，但在眼液中已检测到病毒颗粒，这表明眼睛可能是病毒进入的薄弱点。为此，我们在新冠病毒疾病（COVID-19）患者死后的眼表组织中证实了SARS-CoV-2进入因子和抗原的表达，并在尸体样本和眼类器官培养物中观察到了有效的病毒复制，最显著的是在角膜缘区域。对体外感染的眼表细胞和人胚胎干细胞（hESC）衍生的眼培养物进行转录分析发现，受感染细胞中的核因子κB（NF-κB）被强烈诱导，同时I/III型干扰素信号减弱。这些数据共同表明，眼睛可被SARS-CoV-2直接感染，并暗示角膜缘是病毒进入的门户。
