{"doi":"10.1101/2020.10.05.20201574","title":"Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in human post-mortem ocular tissues","abstract":"BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV-2 is found in conjunctival swabs and tears of COVID-19 patients. However, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 has not been detected in the human eye to date. We undertook this study to analyze the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in human post-mortem ocular tissues. METHODS: The expression of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was assessed by RT-PCR in corneal and scleral tissues from 33 surgical-intended donors who were eliminated from a surgical use per Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA) donor screening guidelines or medical director review or positive COVID-19 test. Ocular levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (RT-PCR), Envelope and Spike proteins (immunohistochemistry) and anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM antibodies (ELISA) in blood were evaluated in 10 COVID-19 donors. FINDINGS: Of 132 ocular tissues from 33 surgical-intended donors, the positivity rate for SARS-CoV-2 RNA was ~13% (17/132). Of 10 COVID-19 donors, six had PCR positive post-mortem nasopharyngeal swabs whereas eight exhibited positive post-mortem anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels. Among 20 eyes recovered from 10 COVID-19 donors: three conjunctival, one anterior corneal, five posterior corneal, and three vitreous swabs tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. SARS-CoV-2 spike and envelope proteins were detected in epithelial layer of the corneas that were procured without Povidone-Iodine (PVP-I) disinfection. INTERPRETATIONS: Our study showed a small but noteworthy prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in ocular tissues from COVID-19 donors. These findings underscore the criticality of donor screening guidelines, post-mortem nasopharyngeal PCR testing and PVP-I disinfection protocol to eliminate any tissue harboring SARS-CoV-2 being used for corneal transplantation.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2020,"id":119207,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":25,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8569,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":273579,"name":"Sneha Singh","orcid":"0000-0003-4990-0870","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273580,"name":"Robert E. Wright","orcid":"0000-0003-2084-5441","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273581,"name":"Kayla M. Jones","orcid":"0000-0002-7119-7467","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273582,"name":"Michael S. Titus","orcid":"0000-0002-3423-4505","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":276132,"name":"Eugene Dennis","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":276133,"name":"Eric Hicks","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":276134,"name":"Parag A. Majmudar","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273583,"name":"Ashok Kumar","orcid":"0000-0001-6332-6591","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":273584,"name":"Shahzad I. Mian","orcid":"0000-0001-7563-5121","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":276131,"name":"Onkar B. Sawant","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":31,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:08.313144Z","pmid":"33052357","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}