COVID-19 virus can remain in semen for up to 110 days – Medical news
Warning about possible consequences for natural conception and assisted reproductive technologies.
Researchers detected SARS-CoV-2 in male reproductive cells under a microscope, even when PCR tests failed to detect the virus in semen. This discovery serves as a warning about possible consequences for natural conception and assisted reproduction.
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Transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in human semen, which is associated with a reaction similar to etiosis.
Summary
Background
Severe acute coronavirus syndrome 2 can affect various tissues, including the testicle. Although this virus is rarely detected in polymerase chain reaction tests on human sperm, autopsy studies confirm the presence of the virus in all types of testicular cells, including spermatozoa and spermatids.
Target
To investigate whether severe acute syndrome coronavirus 2 is present in the semen of polymerase chain reaction-negative men infected within 3 months of hospital discharge.
Materials and methods
This cross-sectional study included 13 patients with confirmed moderate to severe COVID-19 enrolled between 30 and 90 days after diagnosis. Semen samples were obtained and examined using real-time polymerase chain reaction for RNA detection and transmission electron microscopy.
Results
In moderate to severe clinical scenarios, we detected severe acute coronavirus syndrome 2 in semen in nine of 13 patients within 90 days of hospital discharge. In addition, some DNA-based extracellular traps were detected in all samples studied.
Discussion and conclusion
Although severe acute syndrome coronavirus 2 was not present in the semen of infected men, it was present intracellularly in semen until 3 months after discharge from the hospital.
Electron microscopy (EM) results also suggest that sperm produce extracellular traps based on nuclear DNAlikely in a cell-free DNA-dependent manner, similar to those previously described in the systemic inflammatory response to COVID-19.
In moderate to severe cases, the blood-testis barrier provides little protection against various pathogenic viruses, including severe acute syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus can also use epididymis as a posttesticular pathway for binding and fusion with mature sperm and possibly achieving reverse transcription of single-stranded viral RNA into proviral DNA.
These mechanisms can lead to the formation of extracellular extracellular DNA. The potential implications of our findings for assisted conception need to be considered, and the evolutionary history of DNA-based extracellular decoys as stored ammunition in animal innate defense may improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of severe acute coronavirus syndrome 2 in testis and sperm.
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Comments
Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil have demonstrated for the first time that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can remain in patients’ semen for up to 90 days after hospital discharge and up to 110 days after initial infection, which reduces sperm quality. The study was published in a paper published in the journal Andrology. The authors suggest that people planning to have children observe a “quarantine” period after recovering from COVID-19.
More than four years into the pandemic, we know that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of invading and destroying various types of human cells and tissues, including the reproductive system, where the testicles serve as the “gateway.” Although scientists have noted that the virus is more aggressive than other viruses in the male genital tract, and autopsies have found it in the testicles, it is rarely detected in semen using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, which focuses on viruses. DNA.
To address this knowledge gap, a study supported by FAPESP used real-time PCR and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect viral RNA in semen and sperm donated by men recovering from COVID-19.
Semen samples were collected from 13 patients aged 21 to 50 years who had mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 and were admitted to the Hospital de Clínicas (HC), a hospital complex of the university’s Faculty of Medicine. (FM-USP). . Analysis was performed up to 90 days after discharge and 110 days after diagnosis. Although the PCR test results were negative for SARS-CoV-2 in semen in all cases, the virus was detected in the semen of eight of 11 patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 (72.7%) within 90 days after discharge, which does not mean. According to the authors, he was no longer there.