Frontiers in Genetics (Jan 2023)

COVID-19 inhibits spermatogenesis in the testes by inducing cellular senescence

  • Zuomin Wang,
  • Yuxiang Ma,
  • Zude Chen,
  • Riwei Yang,
  • Qinwei Liu,
  • Jinyou Pan,
  • Jiamin Wang,
  • Yangzhou Liu,
  • Mingda Zhou,
  • Yihan Zhang,
  • Yuhao Zhou,
  • Shuxin Yang,
  • Bangyu Zou,
  • Jingwei Lin,
  • Yingxin Cai,
  • Zheng Jiang,
  • Zhen Zhou,
  • Zhigang Zhao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.981471
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Introduction: COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has been linked to organ damage in humans since its worldwide outbreak. It can also induce severe sperm damage, according to research conducted at numerous clinical institutions. However, the exact mechanism of damage is still unknown.Methods: In this study, testicular bulk-RNA-seq Data were downloaded from three COVID-19 patients and three uninfected controls from GEO to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 infection on spermatogenesis. Relative expression of each pathway and the correlation between genes or pathways were analyzed by bioinformatic methods.Results: By detecting the relative expression of each pathway and the correlation between genes or pathways, we found that COVID-19 could induce testicular cell senescence through MAPK signaling pathway. Cellular senescence was synergistic with MAPK pathway, which further affected the normal synthesis of cholesterol and androgen, inhibited the normal synthesis of lactate and pyruvate, and ultimately affected spermatogenesis. The medications targeting MAPK signaling pathway, especially MAPK1 and MAPK14, are expected to be effective therapeutic medications for reducing COVID-19 damage to spermatogenesis.Conclusion: These results give us a new understanding of how COVID-19 inhibits spermatogenesis and provide a possible solution to alleviate this damage.

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