Overview
- The peer-reviewed study from The Florey in Nature Communications reports that males infected with SARS-CoV-2 before conception produced offspring with increased anxiety-like behaviors, with stronger effects in females.
- Researchers detected changes to small noncoding RNAs in the sires’ sperm that are known to influence gene regulation linked to brain development.
- Infected males exhibited testicular inflammation, reduced sperm count and motility, and damage to seminiferous tubules.
- The offspring showed no evidence of infection, indicating the behavioral changes stem from paternal sperm alterations rather than direct viral transmission.
- The authors urge human molecular and epidemiological studies and note the model’s constraints, including hACE2 transgenic mice and high viral doses.