key: cord-0694166-lik6glt9
authors: Fei, Chen; Jing, Yan; Run-Qian, Li; Ya-Bin, Liu; Hao-Ran, Wang
title: Reply: COVID-19 and human reproduction: hypothesis need to be investigated
date: 2020-06-05
journal: Mol Hum Reprod
DOI: 10.1093/molehr/gaaa042
sha: c65103713d3b0dbd059ba8683a9a216e4f987f52
doc_id: 694166
cord_uid: lik6glt9

nan

need to be confirmed or refuted". The potential impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the male reproductive system is such a typical example. Articles published in February predicted that SARS-CoV-2 might damage the testicles, spermatogonia, leydig and sertoli cells (Fan et al., 2020; Wang and Xu, 2020 ).

Yet, two subsequent studies failed to detect SARS-CoV-2 in semen and testicle (Pan et al., 2020 , Song et al., 2020 . It was not until May that six semen samples were found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 . However, whether there was residual live virus or viral nucleic acid needs further confirmation. We propose that the study of the association between SARS-CoV-2 and reproduction is key to the long-term prevention and control of COVID-19. A study has found that the longest interval between discharge from an Ebola treatment unit and collection of a positive semen sample was 565 days (Soka et al., 2016) . Similar results were also found in a study on Zika virus (Atkinson et al., 2016) . Further, there has been a case of a female who died of Ebola after sexual contact with an infected survivor (Mate et al., 2015) , suggesting the necessity to explore the possibility of COVID-19 flare-ups induced by sexual transmission.

We note that some critics believed that the negative impacts of COVID-19 were overstated, and appealed to the government to lift the strict quarantine measures. However, more symptoms of COVID-19 are being reported. For example, it has been reported that children are less likely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Del Rio and Malani, 2020) , and tend to have milder clinical symptoms (Dong et al., 2020) . But the latest study has found that the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic was associated with high incidence of a severe form of Kawasaki disease (Verdoni et al., 2020) .

All in all, since SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus, knowledge regarding it is still being constantly updated. We should remain on high alert for its potential damage to human health, and keep investigating the underlying mechanisms.

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scRNA-seq profiling of human testes reveals the presence of the ACE2 receptor, a target for SARS-CoV-2 infection in spermatogonia, Leydig and Sertoli cells