COVID-19 virus

The study, co-led by Griffith University's Menzies Health Institute and South Korea's Center for Convergent Research for Emerging Virus Infection, Korea ...

[virus](https://medicalxpress.com/tags/virus/) attaches to in order to infect a particular cell in a tissue or organ, and this receptor is found in abundance in the lungs, tonsils, [nasal cavity](https://medicalxpress.com/tags/nasal+cavity/), kidneys and heart, which is why a lot of reports have been published for those organs, but we found ACE2 receptors are also present in the eye, therefore facilitating [infection](https://medicalxpress.com/tags/infection/)." "The virus can infect the eye through nerve tissues at the back of the eye that play a role in the visual aspects of the eye and sending signals for visual purposes," Prof Mahalingam said. [vision](https://medicalxpress.com/tags/vision/) does appear to be symptomatic only, not a permanent degeneration of the eye tissue. "We found the virus can indeed infect the eye through a normal intranasal approach, but also if droplets of the virus make direct contact with the eye," he said. It found the eyes and the trigeminal nerves are susceptible to the virus and that (in animal models) SARS-CoV-2 can infect the eye through the [respiratory tract](https://medicalxpress.com/tags/respiratory+tract/), via the brain.