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Updated: Oct 6, 2025
Translaminar Autonomous System Model for the Modulation of Intraocular and Intracranial Pressure in Human Donor Posterior Segments
Published on: April 24, 2020
LOW VULNERABILITY OF THE POSTERIOR EYE SEGMENT TO SARS-COV-2 INFECTION: Chorioretinal SARS-CoV-2 Vulnerability
Steffen Emil Künzel1, Thore Bürgel2, Sandrine Helene Künzel3
1Department of Ophthalmology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Purpose:
Retinal manifestations have been described in COVID-19 patients, but it is unknown whether SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent in COVID-19, can directly infect posterior ocular tissues. Here, we investigate SARS-CoV-2 host factor gene expression levels and their distribution across retinal and choroidal cell types.
Methods:
Query of single-cell RNA sequencing data from human retina and choroid.
Results:
We find no relevant expression of two key genes involved in SARS-CoV-2 entry, ACE2 and TMPRSS2, in retinal cell types. By contrast, scarce expression levels could be detected in choroidal vascular cells.
Conclusion:
Given the current understanding of viral host cell entry, these findings suggest a low vulnerability of the posterior eye segment to SARS-CoV-2 with a potential weak spot in the vasculature, which could play a putative causative role in ocular lesions in COVID-19 patients. This may qualify the vasculature of the human posterior eye segment as an in vivo biomarker for life-threatening vascular occlusions in COVID-19 patients.
