Preprint Hypothesis Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Semen Quality as a Potential Susceptibility Indicator to SARS-CoV-2 Insults in Polluted Areas

Luigi Montano
* ORCID logo ,
Ian Marc Bonapace
,
Francesco Donato
,
Pietro Massimiliano Bianco
,
Antonino Guglielmino
,
Marina Piscopo
*
Version 1 : Received: 24 June 2020 / Approved: 26 June 2020 / Online: 26 June 2020 (12:37:35 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 6 July 2020 / Approved: 6 July 2020 / Online: 6 July 2020 (09:48:39 CEST)

How to cite: Montano, L.; Bonapace, I. M.; Donato, F.; Bianco, P. M.; Guglielmino, A.; Piscopo, M. Semen Quality as a Potential Susceptibility Indicator to SARS-CoV-2 Insults in Polluted Areas . Preprints 2020, 2020060314. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0314.v1 Montano, L.; Bonapace, I. M.; Donato, F.; Bianco, P. M.; Guglielmino, A.; Piscopo, M. Semen Quality as a Potential Susceptibility Indicator to SARS-CoV-2 Insults in Polluted Areas . Preprints 2020, 2020060314. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202006.0314.v1

Abstract

High levels of air pollution can contribute to high rate of the COVID-19 outbreaks. Air pollutants induce oxidative stress, inflammatory process, immune imbalance and coagulation at systemic level, making the organism susceptible to complications caused by various pathogens, including viruses, resulting in a possible important damage co-factor. Sperm cells are highly sensitive to the pro-oxidant effects of environmental pollutants, and may represent an important alarm bell indicating that the burden of environmental pressure in a certain area is causing damage to humans. A comparison of the maps of COVID-19 case fatality rates, male infertility rates and air pollution may suggest a way to understand the dynamics of the virus impact. Semen quality may be considered as an early and sensitive environmental marker, and also a potential susceptibility indicator to viral insults (including SARS-CoV-2 ) in heavily polluted areas. Therefore, assessing the burden of environmental exposure of a given population and its potential susceptibility to insults through early biological stress indicators may be helpful for predicting the risk of the adverse effects by the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.

Keywords

air pollution; COVID-19; semen quality; environmental marker; health marker; oxidative stress

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Urology and Nephrology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download PDF Download Supplementary

Comments (2)

Comment 1
Received: 26 June 2020
Commenter: Gina
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: the paper is a very topical topic. It is a very interesting document. The overlap between pollution, covid infection and the use of the seed as an indicator is brilliant!
+ Respond to this comment
Comment 2
Received: 10 September 2020
Commenter: Paola Leotta
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: This is an interesting study and the authors described very well the topic.The paper is well written and structured. Brilliant topic and good paper !
+ Respond to this comment

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 2
Get PDF Supplementary Files Cite Share 0
Bookmark BibSonomy Mendeley Reddit Delicious
×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.