Aerosol transmission is recognized as the main route of spread of SARS-CoV-2, but viral particles have also been known to penetrate ocular fluid, making the eye a potential point of entry. Now, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA, have confirmed antigen expression in the ocular surface of a COVID-19 patient postmortem and showed that the virus replicates in human ocular tissue samples and eye organoid cultures. The limbus and limbal regions have been identified as the main portal for SARS-CoV-2 entry and the eye has been confirmed to be susceptible to direct infection.
References
- AZ Eriksen et al., Cell Stem Cell, [Online ahead of print] (2021). PMID: 34022129.
