Impact of COVID-19 on gamete quality and embryo development in patients with COVID-19 positive undergoing ART (preprint)

Backgroud:COVID-19 was recognized a public health issue and SARS-CoV-2 was assumed to infect human ovary and cross the blood–testis barrier. Method:To explore the infection of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients’ semen and follicular fluid and its potential clinical outcome. Ten female patients with an average age of 30.7±4.11years and eight male patients with an average age of 32.13±4.45 years diagnosed with COVID-19 and their spouses were negative to COVID-19 were included. Results: None of ten male and 8 female patients with COVID-19 affecting was absence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in semen and follicular fluid. The sperm parameters, the rates of oocytes maturation, fertilization, cleavage and blastulation between the control and test group was not statistically significant (P>0.05),but the sperm quality, the oocyte maturation and fertilization, the blastulation showed a decline tendency in COVID-19 affected patients. Conclusion: COVID-19 affection may have an uncertian negative influence on the gamete quality and embryo development. Our new knowledge will help to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on fertility in virus infected patients.

Brief Report: Rapid Clinical Recovery from Critical COVID-19 with Respiratory Failure in a Lung Transplant Patient Treated with Intravenous Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (preprint)

RLF-100 (Aviptadil), a synthetic form of Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) is shown to block replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and has been granted Fast Track Designation by the US FDA for the treatment of Critical COVID-19 with Respiratory Failure. We describe the clinical course of the first patient treated with this investigational medication in an open label manner -- a 54 year old patient suffering antibody-mediated rejection of his double lung transplant who contracted COVID-19 with respiratory failure refractory to all currently available therapies. He received three infusions of RLF-100 under an FDA-approved emergency use IND. Within 24 hours of the third infusion, substantial improvement in oxygen saturation and radiographic improvement in characteristic COVID-19 pneumonitis was noted. He was discharged from intensive care at that point and scheduled for discharge to home at 1 week on room air. Despite an intervening hospitalization for trauma, he remains alive and free of respiratory failure at 28 days post treatment.