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

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the .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 Specifically, CJ and IT inoculated animals were able to detect a continued viral load 63 in their nasal and throat swabs from 1 to 7 dpi. In contrast, the virus was not detected 64 in any swabs from the IG inoculated macaques. Notably, only via the CJ route, viral 65 load can be tested in conjunctival swabs (average, approximately 4.33 log10 RNA 66 copies/mL) on 1 dpi and then became undetectable implying that the 67 inoculated-SARS-CoV-2 may be transferred from the initial entry-conjunctiva to 68 respiratory tract and other tissues. Meanwhile, only via the IT route, viral load can be 69 ongoing examined in the anal swabs on 1-7 dpi and reached the peak about 6.76 log10 70 RNA copies/mL on 5 dpi, revealing distinct excretory pathways of host after 71 inoculation via different routes ( Figure 2C ). To determine the distribution of virus and histological lesions, CJ-1, IT-1, and IG-1 74 were euthanized and necropsied on 7 dpi. For CJ-1, viral load was primarily 75 distributed in the nasolacrimal system and ocular, including the lacrimal gland (3.93 76 log10 RNA copies/mL), optic nerve (1.03 log10 RNA copies/mL), and conjunctiva 77 (1.01 log10 RNA copies/mL); in the nose, including the nasal mucosa (6.25 log10 RNA 78 copies/mL), nasal turbinate (6.63 log10 RNA copies/mL), and nostril (1.03 log10 RNA 79 copies/mL); in the pharynx including epiglottis (4.57 log10 RNA copies/mL), soft 80 palate (5.60 log10 RNA copies/mL); in the oral cavity including check pouch (1.03 81 log10 RNA copies/mL) and parotid gland (1.04 log10 RNA copies/mL); as well as in 82 other tissues including lower left lobe of lung (4.6 log10 RNA copies/mL), tonsil (4.51 83 log10 RNA copies/mL), inguinal (1.01 log10 RNA copies/mL) and pararectal (6.25 84 author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.