This heat map reveals significant differences in the amounts of fertility-related proteins in the semen of healthy men (control) and those who had recovered from COVID-19 (COVID-19R).
Credit: Adapted from Ghosh, et al, ACS Omega 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c06551
With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic far from over, new research shows why men should get vaccinated to avoid the risk of an infection seriously affecting their fertility.
The research by Indian scientists working at the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, has shown that even a mild or moderate illness could change the levels of semen proteins related to male reproductive function.
The information supplied by the Americam Chemical Society (ACS) explains more:
Many people who recover from COVID-19 experience long-term symptoms, such as brain fog or heart problems. Increasing evidence suggests that the virus can also impair fertility. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Omega have analyzed protein levels in semen of men who have recovered from COVID-19. The pilot study suggests that even mild or moderate illness could change the levels of proteins related to male reproductive function, the researchers say.The team's findings were published open access yesterday in AMC Omeg:
Although SARS-CoV-2 mainly affects the respiratory system, the virus — and the body’s response to it — also damages other tissues. Recent evidence indicates that COVID-19 infection can reduce male fertility, and the virus has been detected in male reproductive organs. Firuza Parikh and Rajesh Parikh at Jaslok Hospital, Sanjeeva Srivastava at the Indian Institute of Technology and colleagues wondered if COVID-19 infection could have long-term impacts on the male reproductive system. To find out, they decided to compare levels of proteins in the semen of healthy men and those who previously had mild or moderate cases of COVID-19.
The researchers analyzed semen samples from 10 healthy men and 17 men who had recently recovered from COVID-19. None of the men, who ranged in age from 20 to 45, had a prior history of infertility. The team found that the recovered men had significantly reduced sperm count and motility, and fewer normally shaped sperm, than men who hadn’t had COVID-19. When the researchers analyzed semen proteins using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, they found 27 proteins at higher levels and 21 proteins at lower levels in COVID-19-recovered men compared with the control group. Many of the proteins were involved in reproductive function. Two of the fertility-related proteins, semenogelin 1 and prosaposin, were present at less than half their levels in the semen of the COVID-19-recovered group than in the semen of controls. These findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 has direct or indirect effects on male reproductive health that linger after recovery, the researchers say. The work might also reveal insights into the pathophysiology of human reproduction in recovered men, they add. However, they note that larger studies should be done to confirm these findings, and a control group of men who recently recovered from other flu-like illnesses should be included to ensure that the findings are specific for COVID-19.
Copyright: © 2022 The authors. Published by the American Chemical Society (ACS)AbstractUnlike the misiniformation currently being diseminated by the anti-vaxx movement, the vaccines do not reduce fertility in males (or females for that matter), instead, as this research shows, they enhance it by reducing the likelihod that an infection will reduce fertility.
A considerable section of males suffered from COVID-19, with many experiencing long-term repercussions. Recovered males have been documented to have compromised fertility, albeit the mechanisms remain unclear. We investigated the impact of COVID-19 on semen proteome following complete clinical recovery using mass spectrometry. A label-free quantitative proteomics study involved 10 healthy fertile subjects and 17 COVID-19-recovered men. With 1% false discovery rate and >1 unique peptide stringency, MaxQuant analysis found 1099 proteins and 8503 peptides. Of the 48 differentially expressed proteins between the healthy and COVID-19-recovered groups, 21 proteins were downregulated and 27 were upregulated in COVID-19-recovered males. The major pathways involved in reproductive functions, such as sperm–oocyte recognition, testosterone response, cell motility regulation, adhesion regulation, extracellular matrix adhesion, and endopeptidase activity, were downregulated in COVID-19-recovered patients according to bioinformatics analysis. Furthermore, the targeted approach revealed significant downregulation of semenogelin 1 and prosaposin, two proteins related to male fertility. Therefore, we demonstrate the alteration of semen proteome in response to COVID-19, thus disrupting the male reproductive function despite the patient’s clinical remission. Hence, to understand fertility-related biological processes triggered by this infection, a protracted evaluation of the consequences of COVID-19 in recovered men is warranted.
Ghosh, Susmita; Parikh, Swapneil; Nissa, Mehar Un; Acharjee, Arup; Singh, Avinash; Patwa, Dhruv; Makwana, Prashant; Athalye, Arundhati; Barpanda, Abhilash; Laloraya, Malini; Srivastava, Sanjeeva; Parikh, Firuza
Semen Proteomics of COVID-19 Convalescent Men Reveals Disruption of Key Biological Pathways Relevant to Male Reproductive Function
ACS Omega 2022, 7, 10, 8601–8612, March 7, 2022; DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.1c06551
Open access
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
The message is perfectly clear therefore. If you're a man and you wish to retain your fertility, then get vaccinated and get boosted. In fact do anything you can to avoid becoming infected with the SAS-CoV-2 virus. Vaccines are not 100% protection against becoming infected, but they are effective at reducing the severity and duration of the infection.
Lovely how something pretty pertinent to the field of Biology or Medicine cannot find a place in a pertinent journal but prefers an open access chemistry journal..
ReplyDeleteCould you find nothing better to rubbish it with? BTW, 'Open Access' means the authors have made it available to be copied, free from copyright. They pay a fee to the Creative Commons organisation which is dedicated to making scientific research freely available to the public. I'm guessing you thought it meant something else.
DeleteThe research was largely biochemical in nature, which you would have noticed, had you read it. This is probably why it was published in a chemistry journal. What you need to worry about is whether it was peer-reviewed or not. (it was, of course, since the American Chemical Society is a respected professional body in the science world).
Now, would you like to try for a grow-up response?