Covid virus can cause changes in sperm, raise anxiety risk in future generations

While Covid19 infection is known to have lasting effects on the brain an alarming animal study showed that SARSCoV2 infection in fathers before conception can cause changes in sperm altering childrenrsquos brain development and behaviour and increasing the risk of anxiety later The findings published in the journal Nature Communications show that Covid could have longlasting effects on future generationsPrevious studies have shown that male mice exposed to specific environmental and lifestyle factors like a poor diet before mating could change brain development and behaviour in offspringThis is because the fathers experiences can alter the information carried in sperm including specific RNA molecules which transmit instructions for offspring development said lead researcher Professor Anthony Hannan at the University of Melbournersquos Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in AustraliaIn the new study the team wanted to see whether the Covid virus would have a similar effect on sperm RNA and the offspringTo probe the team let male mice recover from SARSCoV2 infection for a few weeks before they mated with healthy femalesThe offspring showed more anxious behaviours compared to offspring from uninfected fathersAll offspring from Covidaffected fathers displayed increased anxietylike behaviours Female offspring also had significant changes in specific gene activity in their brains hippocampus region which is important for anxiety depression and other affective behaviorsThese kinds of changes in the hippocampus as well as other brain regions may contribute to the increased anxiety we observed in offspring via epigenetic inheritance and altered brain development said Dr Carolina Gubert from the InstituteFurther analysis of the RNA from the infected fathers sperm showed that Covid had altered various molecules including some involved in the regulation of genes that are known to be important in brain developmentIf our findings translate to humans this could impact millions of children worldwide and their families with major implications for public health said Hannan while calling for more researchThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever