While Covid-19 infection is known to have lasting effects on the brain, an alarming animal study showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection in fathers before conception can cause changes in sperm, altering children’s brain development and behaviour, and increasing the risk of anxiety later.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that Covid could have long-lasting effects on future generations.
Previous 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 offspring.
“This is because the father`s 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 Melbourne’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Australia.
In the new study, the team wanted to see whether the Covid virus would have a similar effect on sperm RNA and the offspring.
To probe, the team let male mice recover from SARS-CoV-2 infection for a few weeks before they mated with healthy females.
The offspring showed more anxious behaviours compared to offspring from uninfected fathers.
All offspring from Covid-affected fathers displayed increased anxiety-like behaviours. Female offspring also had significant changes in specific gene activity in their brain`s hippocampus region, which is important for anxiety, depression, and other affective behaviors.
“These 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 Institute.
Further 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 development.
“If 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 research.
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