Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus in semen and testicular biopsy specimen of COVID-19 patients

  1. Ci Song
  2. Yan Wang
  3. Weiqin Li
  4. Bicheng Hu
  5. Guohua Chen
  6. Ping Xia
  7. Wei Wang
  8. Chaojun Li
  9. Zhibin Hu
  10. Xiaoyu Yang
  11. Bing Yao
  12. Yun Liu

Reviewed by

Read the full article

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Background

As of March 11, 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak was declared as a pandemic. Expending our understanding of the transmission routes of the viral infection is crucial in controlling the outbreak. It is unclear whether the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) can directly infect the testes or male genital tract and be sexually transmitted from males.

Methods

From January 31 to March 14, 2020, 12 patients in recovery and one patient died of COVID-19 were included in this descriptive study. The clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, chest CT scans and outcome data were recorded. To examine whether there is sexual transmission from male, we employed realtime polymerase chain reaction testing (RT-PCR) to detect 2019-nCov in semen or testicular biopsy specimen.

Findings

The age range of the 12 patients in recovery was 22-38 years. None of the patients developed severe COVID-19 pneumonia. As of March 14, 2020, ten patients discharged from the hospital while the rest 2 had developed into recovery stage. All of the 12 patients in recovery tested negative for 2019-nCoV RNA in semen samples. Another patient aged 67 died in March 10, 2020, whose tissue sample via testicular biopsy was also tested negative for viral RNA.

Conclusion

No positive RT-PCR result was found in the semen or testicular biopsy specimen. The results from this study show no evidence of sexual transmission of 2019-nCov from males.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.31.20042333: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Study design and patients: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Nanjing Medical University.
    Consent: Written informed consent was obtained from the 12 enrolled patient.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableIn summary, we recruited 12 survived male COVID-19 patients from January 31 to March 14, 2020 in Wuhan.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    IgM and IgG antibodies in serum were measured by using a commercial colloidal gold test kit (Wondfo biotechnology, Guangzhou, China) recommended by the CDC.
    IgM
    suggested: None
    IgG
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Our study has several limitations. First, the sample size was relatively small in which only 13 patients with 2019-nCov positive was included; more patients are needed to confirm our findings in the future. Second, multiple nucleic acid tests on semen should be taken during the course of disease, especially in the incubation period. However, multiple collection of semen sample was difficult. Nevertheless, this is the first study that directly evidenced the absence of 2019-nCov in semen and testicular biopsy specimen of male COVID-19 patients, which indicated that 2019-nCov can not straightway infect the testes and male genital tract.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.31.20042333v2 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.31.20042333v1 on medRxiv