Testicular pain, erectile dysfunction, lowered sperm count and quality, decreased fertility are direct consequence of infection, brand-new study shows.
Several tissues of the male genital tract can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, reports a brand-new Northwestern Medicine study in large animal models. The research study, in SARS-CoV-2 infected-rhesus macaques, exposed the prostate, vasculature of testicles, penis, and testicles were all contaminated with the virus.
The surprising discovery was made making use of a PET scan specifically created to expose websites of infection spreading in time in a whole-body scan. Researchers didnt know what they would find, however they anticipated to see the infection in the lungs and high up in the nose near the brain because individuals were experiencing loss of taste and odor.
” But the signal that leapt out at us was the complete spread through the male genital system,” stated lead detective Thomas Hope, professor of cell and developmental biology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. “We had no idea we would discover it there.”
” These outcomes indicate that the testicular pain, erectile dysfunction, hypogonadism, lowered sperm count and quality, and reduced fertility associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection are a direct effect of infection of cells of the male reproductive system and not indirect mechanisms such as fever and swelling,” Hope said.
The evidence that infection with SARS-CoV-2 can negatively impact male sexual health and fertility is increasing every day. Scientists didnt understand the factor and wondered if the cause was fever and inflammation.
” We simply didnt understand why it had this negative effect until this research study,” Hope said. He noted viruses such as mumps, Ebola, Zika, SARS-COV-1, and other infections likewise can infect tissues of the male genital system and negatively impact fertility. Mumps infection is popular to possibly cause male sterility.
The new study reveals how the virus can trigger pathology in the prostate, penis, testicles, and testicular vasculature (blood vessels), Hope stated.
The study is published as a preprint on bioRxiv, implying it ought to be thought about initial research study until it is released in a peer-reviewed journal.
” Even if this is just a small percentage of the infected, it represents countless guys who might struggle with a negative influence on their sexual health and fertility,” Hope stated.
Medical studies suggest 10% to 20% of SARS-CoV-2-infected males have symptoms associated to male genital system dysfunction. This recommends 10s of countless men who have actually been infected with SARS-CoV-2, especially those who had extreme COVID-19, should evaluate their sexual health and fertility to figure out if extra therapies could prevent or reduce future problems, Hope stated.
” The potential impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on sexual and reproductive health must be part of everybodys decision to get immunized to decrease the opportunity of death, severe illness and hospitalization, and infection of the prostate, penis, testicles and vasculature (blood supply) of testicles,” Hope said.
This is the first PET (positron emission tomography) probe shown to be able to identify the sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a living animal, the research study authors said.
” This method enables the sequential scanning of the same animal, which specifies the development of infection dissemination and time prior to the infection is purged from the body,” Hope said. “It likewise has the prospective to increase our understanding of long COVID and the advancement of novel therapies targeting various long COVID comorbidities.”
How the study worked
Early advancement of a fluorescently labeled variation of the antibody-derived probe suggested a radioactive variation of the probe would reveal the physiological circulation of SARS-CoV-2 infection after a PET scan.
The observation of SARS-CoV-2 infection of the various tissues of the male genital system emerges from a brand-new system developed to use a PET scan to discover websites of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a rhesus macaque. The recognition of the rhesus macaque as a significant and reproducible website of SARS-CoV-2 infection was unforeseen and has pathological attributes consistent with the pathology of testicles of victims of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Future research study by Hopes lab will:
Analyze male genital tract infection at later timepoints
Figure out if testicles are a tank for SARS-CoV-2 infection as has been suggested in literature
If SARS-CoV-2 contaminates tissues of the female reproductive system, investigate
Help in the development of interventions and therapies to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on male fertility
Goal to eventually do PET scan on patients to figure out the location of the virus and the very best course of care
Recommendation: “An immunoPET probe to SARS-CoV-2 reveals early infection of the male genital tract in rhesus macaques” by Patrick J. Madden, Yanique Thomas, Robert V. Blair, Sadia Samer, Mark Doyle, Cecily C. Midkiff, Mark E. Becker, Muhammad S. Arif, Michael D. McRaven, Lacy M. Simons, Ann M. Carias, Elena Martinelli, Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, Judd F Hultquist, Francois J. Villinger, Ronald S. Veazey and Thomas J. Hope, 28 February 2022, bioRxiv.DOI: 10.1101/ 2022.02.25.481974.
Other Northwestern authors include Patrick Madden, Yanique Thomas, Sadia Samer, Mark Becker, Muhammad Arif, Michael McRaven, Ann Carias, Elena Martinelli, Judd Hultquist, Lacy Simons and Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo.
This research study was moneyed by a “Notice of Special Interest” supplement for National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (of the National Institutes of Health) grant R37AI094595 for SARS-CoV-2 related studies.
