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The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an important health problem that was defined as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. Although great concern has been expressed about COVID-19 infection acquired through ocular transmission, its underlying mechanism has not currently bee...

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Autores principales: Napoli, Pietro Emanuele, Nioi, Matteo, d’Aloja, Ernesto, Fossarello, Maurizio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7287662/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32353982
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9051269
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author Napoli, Pietro Emanuele
Nioi, Matteo
d’Aloja, Ernesto
Fossarello, Maurizio
author_facet Napoli, Pietro Emanuele
Nioi, Matteo
d’Aloja, Ernesto
Fossarello, Maurizio
author_sort Napoli, Pietro Emanuele
collection PubMed
description Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an important health problem that was defined as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. Although great concern has been expressed about COVID-19 infection acquired through ocular transmission, its underlying mechanism has not currently been clarified. In the current work, we analyzed and elucidated the two main elements that should be taken into account to understand the “ocular route”, both from a clinical and molecular point of view. They are represented by the dynamism of the ocular surface system (e.g., the tear film turnover) and the distribution of ACE2 receptors and TMPRSS2 protein. Although it seems, at the moment, that there is a low risk of coronavirus spreading through tears, it may survive for a long time or replicate in the conjunctiva, even in absence of conjunctivitis signs, indicating that eye protection (e.g., protective goggles alone or in association with face shield) is advisable to prevent contamination from external droplets and aerosol.
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spelling pubmed-72876622020-06-15 The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist? Napoli, Pietro Emanuele Nioi, Matteo d’Aloja, Ernesto Fossarello, Maurizio J Clin Med Editorial Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an important health problem that was defined as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. Although great concern has been expressed about COVID-19 infection acquired through ocular transmission, its underlying mechanism has not currently been clarified. In the current work, we analyzed and elucidated the two main elements that should be taken into account to understand the “ocular route”, both from a clinical and molecular point of view. They are represented by the dynamism of the ocular surface system (e.g., the tear film turnover) and the distribution of ACE2 receptors and TMPRSS2 protein. Although it seems, at the moment, that there is a low risk of coronavirus spreading through tears, it may survive for a long time or replicate in the conjunctiva, even in absence of conjunctivitis signs, indicating that eye protection (e.g., protective goggles alone or in association with face shield) is advisable to prevent contamination from external droplets and aerosol. MDPI 2020-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7287662/ /pubmed/32353982 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9051269 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Editorial
Napoli, Pietro Emanuele
Nioi, Matteo
d’Aloja, Ernesto
Fossarello, Maurizio
The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?
title The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?
title_full The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?
title_fullStr The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?
title_full_unstemmed The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?
title_short The Ocular Surface and the Coronavirus Disease 2019: Does a Dual ‘Ocular Route’ Exist?
title_sort ocular surface and the coronavirus disease 2019: does a dual ‘ocular route’ exist?
topic Editorial
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7287662/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32353982
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9051269
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