Rhesus macaques can be effectively infected with SARS-CoV-2 via ocular conjunctival route

Wei Deng; Linlin Bao; Hong Gao; Zhiguang Xiang; Yajin Qu; Zhiqi Song; Shunran Gong; Jiayi Liu; Jiangning Liu; Pin Yu; Feifei Qi; Yanfeng Xu; Fengli Li; Chong Xiao; Qi Lv; Jing Xue; Qiang Wei; Mingya Liu; Guanpeng Wang; Shunyi Wang; Haisheng Yu; Xing Liu; Wenjie Zhao; Yunlin Han; Chuan Qin

inoculated with 1×10 6 TCID50 of SARS-CoV-2 via conjunctival (CJ), intratracheal 23 (IT), and intragastric (IG) routes, respectively. Remarkably, the CJ 24 inoculated-macaques developed mild interstitial pneumonia and viral load was 25 detectable in the conjunctival swabs at 1 days post-inoculation (dpi). Only via IT 26 inoculation, viral load was detected in the anal swab at 1-7 dpi and macaque showed 27 weight loss. However, viral load was undetectable after IG inoculation. Comparatively, 28 viral load was higher in the nasolacrimal system but lesions of lung were relatively 29 mild and local via CJ inoculation compared with that via IT inoculation, 30 demonstrating distinct characteristics of virus dispersion. Both the two routes affected The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.13.990036 doi: bioRxiv preprint conjunctivitis 1 displayed detectable viral RNA. A previous study reported the case of a 41 clinician who was infected with SARS-CoV-2 while working with patients under all 42 safeguards except eye protection 3 . By contrast, no SARS-CoV-2 could be detected by 43 RT-PCR in 114 conjunctival swabs samples from patients with COVID-19 pneumonia . The potential extra-respiratory portals that SARS-CoV-2 enter the host need to be 45 further research by laboratory-confirmation for providing significant data to oversight 46 and prevention for healthcare workers. We daily observed the macaques for clinical signs. There was no significant change in 56 the body weight ( Figure 2A ) in the CJ and IG inoculated macaques and the 57 temperature ( Figure 2B ) in all the inoculated macaques, while the weight loss was 58 obvious in the IT inoculated macaques and dropped about 125 g at 5 dpi. Routine 59 specimens, including nasal and throat swabs, were collected on 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7-day 60 post-inoculation (dpi). Additionally, to explore the potentially excretory routes of 61 SARS-CoV-2 in the host, the conjunctival and anal swabs were also gathered. 62 author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.