{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:20:58Z","timestamp":1760235658421,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,20]],"date-time":"2021-09-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1632096000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease has been described to possibly be associated with ocular surface disturbances. However, whether the virus could invade ocular tissues still remains elusive. In the present study, we tried to investigate the post-mortem presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in corneal epithelium gathered by patients with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Cadavers with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of moderate to severe COVID-19 were examined. Clinical and demographic features were retrieved from hospital patients\u2019 notes. For each cadaver, corneal scrapings, conjunctival swabs (CS) and nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) were collected to perform real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction ((RT)-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2. Fourteen consecutive cadavers with an ante-mortem confirmed diagnosis of moderate to severe COVID-19 were examined. The last NPS performed ante-mortem confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in 12\/14 (85.7%) patients. The mean death-to-swab time (DtS) was 3.15 \u00b1 0.5 (2.10\u20135.1) h. The post-mortem NPS and CS found positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA were 9\/14 (64.3%) and 3\/28 (10.7%), respectively. None of the corneal epithelium scrapes tested positive to RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. These data promote the SARS-CoV-2 as not able to contaminate the post-mortem corneal epithelium, while it can persist in different other structures of the ocular surface (i.e., the conjunctiva). It is reasonable to assume that such a contamination can occur ante-mortem too.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm10184256","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,21]],"date-time":"2021-09-21T08:04:23Z","timestamp":1632211463000},"page":"4256","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Post-Mortem RT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patients\u2019 Corneal Epithelium, Conjunctival and Nasopharyngeal Swabs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Francesco","family":"Aiello","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Ophthalmology Unit, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9943-9130","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marco","family":"Ciotti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Virology Unit, University Hospital \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gabriele","family":"Gallo Afflitto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ophthalmology Unit, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maria Cristina","family":"Rapanotti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Onco-Haematology, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bartolo","family":"Caggiano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michele","family":"Treglia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sandro","family":"Grelli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sergio","family":"Bernardini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Silvestro","family":"Mauriello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Carlo","family":"Nucci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ophthalmology Unit, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Luigi Tonino","family":"Marsella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Raffaele","family":"Mancino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ophthalmology Unit, Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"497","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)30183-5","article-title":"Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China","volume":"395","author":"Huang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"(2020). 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