A team of researchers from Flinders University School of Medicine in Australia has discovered how the Ebola virus may live on in the eyes of survivors suffering from uveitis, one of the complications of the disease.
According to researchers, about one in four Ebola survivors from Sierra Leone suffer from uveitis, and the eye is a location where live Ebola virus can be found up to one-year post-infection.
For their study, investigators reportedly introduced live Ebola virus to RPE cells in vitro, finding the virus readily replicated in the cells while the cells continued their native function of expressing molecules that limit the ability of the immune system to fight infection. Researchers reportedly believe the resulting subdued immune response may be responsible for the persistence of live virus in the eye.
The research was recently published in the journal Translational Vision Science & Technology (TVST), published by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
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Source: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)