Corona, higher risk for testicular cancer development?

ABSTRACT

Introduction & Objectives: In November 2019 the first case of Sars-Cov2 was noticed in Wuhan, China. This virus was finally spreading all over the world and we have a pandemic situation with an unclear outcome. Several different groups have already published that the virus can be present in the testis after infection, however with unknown consequences. Materials & Methods: FPPE tissue samples from patients died with or of Corona (n=6) compared with healthy donors (n=5), seminoma without metastasis (n=5) and seminoma with metastasis (n=5) were analyzed and compared via qRT-PCR for the expression of microRNAs (miRs) which are predominantly overexpressed in Seminoma and in metastazing cells, miR-199-3p, miR-498 and miR-371a-3p. Beyond this, an IHC for Androgenreceptor (AR) and ACE2 was performed. The median age of the corona patients was 70 years. Results: In 50% of all corona FFPE samples, a significant upregulation of the seminoma specific miR-371a-3p was detectable, whereas all other tumor specific miRs were negative. In H&E staining of the FFPE samples in 50% of all patients the spermatogenesis was reduced/absent. IHC for AR in COVID positive and negative testes showed loss of immunoreactivity in Sertoli cells of Covid-positive cases vs controls. Conclusions: Our group presented here for the first time a possible late onset complication after Sars-Cov2 infection, namely the increased risk for developing seminoma due to the upregulation of the seminoma specific miR-371a-3p.