COVID-19 Infection Induce miR-371a-3p Upregulation Resulting in Influence on Male Fertility

Goebel H, Koeditz B, Huerta M, Kameri E, Nestler T, Kamphausen T, Friemann J, Hamdorf M, Ohrmann T, Koehler P, Cornely OA, Montesinos-Rongen M, Nicol D, Schorle H, Boor P, Quaas A, Pallasch C, Heidenreich A, von Brandenstein M (2022)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Biomedicines MDPI AG

Book Volume: 10

Article Number: 858

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines10040858

Abstract

In December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was reported and since then several groups have already published that the virus can be present in the testis. To study the influence of SARS-CoV-2 which cause a dysregulation of the androgen receptor (AR) level, thereby leading to fertility problems and inducing germ cell testicular changes in patients after the infection. Formalin-Fixed-Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) testicular samples from patients who died with or as a result of COVID-19 (n = 32) with controls (n = 6), inflammatory changes (n = 9), seminoma with/without metastasis (n = 11) compared with healthy biopsy samples (n = 3) were analyzed and compared via qRT-PCR for the expression of miR-371a-3p. An immunohistochemical analysis (IHC) and ELISA were performed in order to highlight the miR-371a-3p targeting the AR. Serum samples of patients with mild or severe COVID-19 symptoms (n = 34) were analyzed for miR-371a-3p expression. In 70% of the analyzed postmortem testicular tissue samples, a significant upregulation of the miR-371a-3p was detected, and 75% of the samples showed a reduced spermatogenesis. In serum samples, the upregulation of the miR-371a-3p was also detectable. The upregulation of the miR-371a-3p is responsible for the downregulation of the AR in SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, resulting in decreased spermatogenesis. Since the dysregulation of the AR is associated with infertility, further studies have to confirm if the identified dysregulation is regressive after a declining infection.

Involved external institutions

Royal Marsden Hospital / The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust GB United Kingdom (GB) Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn DE Germany (DE) Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen DE Germany (DE) Universitätsklinikum Köln DE Germany (DE) Universität zu Köln DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Goebel, H., Koeditz, B., Huerta, M., Kameri, E., Nestler, T., Kamphausen, T.,... von Brandenstein, M. (2022). COVID-19 Infection Induce miR-371a-3p Upregulation Resulting in Influence on Male Fertility. Biomedicines, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10040858

MLA:

Goebel, Heike, et al. "COVID-19 Infection Induce miR-371a-3p Upregulation Resulting in Influence on Male Fertility." Biomedicines 10.4 (2022).

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