Effects of COVID-19 on male sex function and its potential sexual transmission Summary

WHO (1). Once COVID-19 is installed, its severity and prognosis depend on multiple factors, including sex (male), age (over 60 years), and the presence of pre-existing diseases (diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases) (2). Coronaviruses (CoV) belong to the coronaviridae family and are characterized by being positive single-stranded RNA type, which encodes for topographically positioned proteins: spicules (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N). In pathogenicity, S proteins are essential to enter the host cell (3). The biology of the testicle represents an ideal model for the study and evaluation of pathologies, given that events of mitosis, meiosis, and cell differentiation occurring in it, in addition to its endocrine regulation. Also, the testicle is highly sensitive to variations in body homeostasis. Particularly in the case of SARS-CoV-2, which uses the Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor as an entry route, associated with the transmembrane serine protease protein (TMPRSS2), makes the testis and particularly spermatogenesis potentially vulnerable, since this tissue has high expression of ACE2 receptor (4, 5).