Abstract
The virome of ocular fluids is naive. The results of this study highlight the virome in the vitreous fluid of the eye of individuals without any ocular infection and compare it with the virome of the vitreous fluid of individuals with retinitis. A total of 1,016,037 viral reads were generated from 25 vitreous fluid samples comprising control and post-fever retinitis (PFR) samples. The top 10 viral families in the vitreous fluids comprised of Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, Phycodnaviridae, Herpesviridae, Poxviridae, Iridoviridae, Podoviridae, Retroviridae, Baculoviridae, and Flaviviridae. Principal coordinate analysis and heat map analysis clearly discriminated the virome of the vitreous fluid of the controls from that of the PFR virome. The abundance of 10 viral genera increased significantly in the vitreous fluid virome of the post-fever retinitis group compared with the control group. Genus Lymphocryptovirus, comprising the human pathogen Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) that is also implicated in ocular infections was significantly abundant in eight out of the nine vitreous fluid viromes of post-fever retinitis group samples compared with the control viromes. Human viruses, such as Hepacivirus, Circovirus, and Kobuvirus, were also significantly increased in abundance in the vitreous fluid viromes of post-fever retinitis group samples compared with the control viromes. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional analysis and the network analysis depicted an increase in the immune response by the host in the post-fever retinitis group compared with the control group. All together, the results of the study indicate changes in the virome in the vitreous fluid of patients with the post-fever retinitis group compared to the control group.
Highlights
Diverse groups of viruses having DNA or RNA as their genome can infect eyes and cause different ocular diseases
Except for double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses, all the other viruses were increased in the post-fever retinitis (PFR) group compared with the viruses in the control (VC) group. dsDNA viruses are predominantly present in both groups with a mean abundance of 88.1 and 87.1 in the control and PFR groups, respectively (Supplementary Table 3)
0.008 0.018 0.001 0.015 0.006 0.006 0.006 0.002 0.025 0.02 0.002 0.011 0.006 0.037 0.011 0.006 0.016 0.042 0.036 0.004 0.005 0.002 0.045 0.044 [37, 38]. It is becoming more obvious with reports on the virome from different body fluids, such as cerebrospinal fluids (CSF), human milk, and blood that viruses could reach those parts of the body that were once thought to be sterile [19]
Summary
Diverse groups of viruses having DNA or RNA as their genome can infect eyes and cause different ocular diseases. Viromes have been previously characterized on the surface of the skin [15], blood [16, 17], breast milk [18], cerebrospinal fluids [19], oral cavity [20, 21], lower gastrointestinal tract [22,23,24], respiratory tract [25], bladder [26], and vagina [27, 28] This is probably the first study on the virome of the vitreous fluid of the human eye of normal healthy individuals and is compared with that on the virome of the vitreous fluid of patients with PFR and retinitis. Such studies would highlight the virome associated with the vitreous fluid of normal healthy eye and further by comparison with the vitreous fluid of PFR and retinitis group patients, the data would enhance the understanding of the role of these viruses in PFR, an ocular disease
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
