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Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease has been described to possibly be associated with ocular surface disturbances. However, whether the virus could invade ocular tissues still remains elusive. In the present study, we tried to investigate the post-mortem presence of...

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Autores principales: Aiello, Francesco, Ciotti, Marco, Gallo Afflitto, Gabriele, Rapanotti, Maria Cristina, Caggiano, Bartolo, Treglia, Michele, Grelli, Sandro, Bernardini, Sergio, Mauriello, Silvestro, Nucci, Carlo, Marsella, Luigi Tonino, Mancino, Raffaele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8464749/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34575369
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10184256
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author Aiello, Francesco
Ciotti, Marco
Gallo Afflitto, Gabriele
Rapanotti, Maria Cristina
Caggiano, Bartolo
Treglia, Michele
Grelli, Sandro
Bernardini, Sergio
Mauriello, Silvestro
Nucci, Carlo
Marsella, Luigi Tonino
Mancino, Raffaele
author_facet Aiello, Francesco
Ciotti, Marco
Gallo Afflitto, Gabriele
Rapanotti, Maria Cristina
Caggiano, Bartolo
Treglia, Michele
Grelli, Sandro
Bernardini, Sergio
Mauriello, Silvestro
Nucci, Carlo
Marsella, Luigi Tonino
Mancino, Raffaele
author_sort Aiello, Francesco
collection PubMed
description Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease has been described to possibly be associated with ocular surface disturbances. However, whether the virus could invade ocular tissues still remains elusive. In the present study, we tried to investigate the post-mortem presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in corneal epithelium gathered by patients with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Cadavers with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of moderate to severe COVID-19 were examined. Clinical and demographic features were retrieved from hospital patients’ notes. For each cadaver, corneal scrapings, conjunctival swabs (CS) and nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) were collected to perform real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction ((RT)-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2. Fourteen consecutive cadavers with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of moderate to severe COVID-19 were examined. The last NPS performed ante-mortem confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in 12/14 (85.7%) patients. The mean death-to-swab time (DtS) was 3.15 ± 0.5 (2.10–5.1) h. The post-mortem NPS and CS found positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA were 9/14 (64.3%) and 3/28 (10.7%), respectively. None of the corneal epithelium scrapes tested positive to RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. These data promote the SARS-CoV-2 as not able to contaminate the post-mortem corneal epithelium, while it can persist in different other structures of the ocular surface (i.e., the conjunctiva). It is reasonable to assume that such a contamination can occur ante-mortem too.
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spelling pubmed-84647492021-09-27 Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs Aiello, Francesco Ciotti, Marco Gallo Afflitto, Gabriele Rapanotti, Maria Cristina Caggiano, Bartolo Treglia, Michele Grelli, Sandro Bernardini, Sergio Mauriello, Silvestro Nucci, Carlo Marsella, Luigi Tonino Mancino, Raffaele J Clin Med Article Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease has been described to possibly be associated with ocular surface disturbances. However, whether the virus could invade ocular tissues still remains elusive. In the present study, we tried to investigate the post-mortem presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in corneal epithelium gathered by patients with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Cadavers with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of moderate to severe COVID-19 were examined. Clinical and demographic features were retrieved from hospital patients’ notes. For each cadaver, corneal scrapings, conjunctival swabs (CS) and nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) were collected to perform real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction ((RT)-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2. Fourteen consecutive cadavers with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of moderate to severe COVID-19 were examined. The last NPS performed ante-mortem confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in 12/14 (85.7%) patients. The mean death-to-swab time (DtS) was 3.15 ± 0.5 (2.10–5.1) h. The post-mortem NPS and CS found positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA were 9/14 (64.3%) and 3/28 (10.7%), respectively. None of the corneal epithelium scrapes tested positive to RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. These data promote the SARS-CoV-2 as not able to contaminate the post-mortem corneal epithelium, while it can persist in different other structures of the ocular surface (i.e., the conjunctiva). It is reasonable to assume that such a contamination can occur ante-mortem too. MDPI 2021-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8464749/ /pubmed/34575369 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10184256 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Aiello, Francesco
Ciotti, Marco
Gallo Afflitto, Gabriele
Rapanotti, Maria Cristina
Caggiano, Bartolo
Treglia, Michele
Grelli, Sandro
Bernardini, Sergio
Mauriello, Silvestro
Nucci, Carlo
Marsella, Luigi Tonino
Mancino, Raffaele
Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs
title Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs
title_full Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs
title_fullStr Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs
title_full_unstemmed Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs
title_short Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients’ Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs
title_sort post-mortem rt-pcr assay for sars-cov-2 rna in covid-19 patients’ corneal epithelium, conjunctival and nasopharyngeal swabs
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8464749/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34575369
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10184256
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