Cargando…

Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?

Infectious diseases of the conjunctiva and cornea usually leave behind both broad local and systemic immunity. Case reports of SARS-CoV-2-positive conjunctivitis with subsequent systemic immunity suggest a new route of immunization preventing the primary infection of the airways. Material and Method...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schrage, Norbert, Blomet, Joel, Holzer, Frank, Tromme, A., Ectors, F., Desmecht, Daniel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9318776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35891426
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14071447
_version_ 1784755377026367488
author Schrage, Norbert
Blomet, Joel
Holzer, Frank
Tromme, A.
Ectors, F.
Desmecht, Daniel
author_facet Schrage, Norbert
Blomet, Joel
Holzer, Frank
Tromme, A.
Ectors, F.
Desmecht, Daniel
author_sort Schrage, Norbert
collection PubMed
description Infectious diseases of the conjunctiva and cornea usually leave behind both broad local and systemic immunity. Case reports of SARS-CoV-2-positive conjunctivitis with subsequent systemic immunity suggest a new route of immunization preventing the primary infection of the airways. Material and Methods: A total of 24 Syrian field hamsters were treated. In systematic animal experiments, we infected the eyes of n = 8 animals (group 1) and the airways of another n = 8 animals (group 2) with SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan type); n = 8 hamsters served as controls (group 3). The weight development of the animals was recorded. After two weeks of observation of disease symptoms, all animals were re-exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in the respiratory tract (challenge) to determine whether immunity to the virus had been achieved. Results: The epi-ocularly infected animals (group 1) showed no clinically visible disease during the ocular infection phase. At most, there was a slightly reduced weight gain compared to the control group (group 3), while the respiratory infected animals (group 2) all lost weight, became lethargic, and slowly recovered after two weeks. After the challenge, none of the animals in groups 1 and 2 became ill again. The animals in the negative control (group 3) all became ill. Cytotoxic antibodies were detectable in the blood of the infected groups before and after challenge, with higher titers in the epi-ocularly infected animals. Conclusion: By epi-ocular infection with SARS-CoV-2, the development of systemic immunity with formation of cytotoxic antibodies without severe general disease could be observed in the experimental animals, which did not induce any more disease upon a second infection in the respiratory tract. Therefore, it can be concluded that a purely epi-ocular infection with SARS-CoV2 only induces a weak disease pattern followed by systemic immunity.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9318776
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-93187762022-07-27 Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization? Schrage, Norbert Blomet, Joel Holzer, Frank Tromme, A. Ectors, F. Desmecht, Daniel Viruses Article Infectious diseases of the conjunctiva and cornea usually leave behind both broad local and systemic immunity. Case reports of SARS-CoV-2-positive conjunctivitis with subsequent systemic immunity suggest a new route of immunization preventing the primary infection of the airways. Material and Methods: A total of 24 Syrian field hamsters were treated. In systematic animal experiments, we infected the eyes of n = 8 animals (group 1) and the airways of another n = 8 animals (group 2) with SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan type); n = 8 hamsters served as controls (group 3). The weight development of the animals was recorded. After two weeks of observation of disease symptoms, all animals were re-exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in the respiratory tract (challenge) to determine whether immunity to the virus had been achieved. Results: The epi-ocularly infected animals (group 1) showed no clinically visible disease during the ocular infection phase. At most, there was a slightly reduced weight gain compared to the control group (group 3), while the respiratory infected animals (group 2) all lost weight, became lethargic, and slowly recovered after two weeks. After the challenge, none of the animals in groups 1 and 2 became ill again. The animals in the negative control (group 3) all became ill. Cytotoxic antibodies were detectable in the blood of the infected groups before and after challenge, with higher titers in the epi-ocularly infected animals. Conclusion: By epi-ocular infection with SARS-CoV-2, the development of systemic immunity with formation of cytotoxic antibodies without severe general disease could be observed in the experimental animals, which did not induce any more disease upon a second infection in the respiratory tract. Therefore, it can be concluded that a purely epi-ocular infection with SARS-CoV2 only induces a weak disease pattern followed by systemic immunity. MDPI 2022-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9318776/ /pubmed/35891426 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14071447 Text en © 2022 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
Schrage, Norbert
Blomet, Joel
Holzer, Frank
Tromme, A.
Ectors, F.
Desmecht, Daniel
Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?
title Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?
title_full Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?
title_fullStr Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?
title_full_unstemmed Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?
title_short Eye Infection with SARS-CoV-2 as a Route to Systemic Immunization?
title_sort eye infection with sars-cov-2 as a route to systemic immunization?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9318776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35891426
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14071447
work_keys_str_mv AT schragenorbert eyeinfectionwithsarscov2asaroutetosystemicimmunization
AT blometjoel eyeinfectionwithsarscov2asaroutetosystemicimmunization
AT holzerfrank eyeinfectionwithsarscov2asaroutetosystemicimmunization
AT trommea eyeinfectionwithsarscov2asaroutetosystemicimmunization
AT ectorsf eyeinfectionwithsarscov2asaroutetosystemicimmunization
AT desmechtdaniel eyeinfectionwithsarscov2asaroutetosystemicimmunization