Chikungunya Virus Shedding in Semen: A Case Series

Evaluation of renal markers and liver enzymes in patients infected with the Chikungunya virus

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arbovirus (Togaviridae family, Alphavirus genus) that was first identified in 1953 in Tanzania. In 2014, the Asian and East/Central/South/African (ECSA) genotypes were identified in Brazil, although the genotype that spread the most in the following years across the Brazilian territory was the ECSA. The clinical symptoms associated with the infection caused by CHIKV include mainly fever, myalgia, headache, and arthralgia. In infections caused by other arboviruses (such as the ones caused by Dengue and West Nile viruses), changes in biochemical markers are often observed. This study aims to evaluate the biochemical markers profile of kidney and liver injury in acute patients infected with CHIKV. Two groups of correlations were found between the variables analyzed, namely, one between liver enzymes (r = 0.91), and another for kidney markers (r = 0.54-0.66). A significant elevation in the percentage of altered creatinine in CHIKV-infected patients was observed, followed by uric acid and AST. Altogether, in 8 different comparisons, it was possible to observe statistically significant differences between the levels of the markers when compared to the manifestation of symptoms (presence and absence). These noticeable changes in marker measurements could potentially be connected to the range of clinical symptoms seen in the disease.

Special Issue "Chikungunya Virus and Emerging Alphaviruses"

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an alphavirus transmitted by mosquitoes, has experienced a recent re-emergence in various regions of the world, leading to large-scale outbreaks [...].

CBPH assay for the highest sensitive detection of SARS-COV-2 in the semen

BACKGROUND

Great concerns have been raised on SARS-CoV-2 impact on men's andrological well-being, and many studies have attempted to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 is present in the semen and till now the data are unclear and somehow ambiguous. However, these studies used quantitative real-time (qRT) PCR, which is not sufficiently sensitive to detect nucleic acids in clinical samples with a low viral load.

METHODS

The clinical performance of various nucleic acid detection methods (qRT-PCR, OSN-qRT-PCR, cd-PCR, and CBPH) was assessed for SARS-CoV-2 using 236 clinical samples from laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases. Then, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the semen of 12 recovering patients was investigated using qRT-PCR, OSN-qRT-PCR, cd-PCR, and CBPH in parallel using 24 paired semen, blood, throat swab, and urine samples.

RESULTS

The sensitivity and specificity along with AUC of CBPH was markedly higher than the other 3methods. Although qRT-PCR, OSN-qRT-PCR and cdPCR detected no SARS-CoV-2 RNA in throat swab, blood, urine, and semen samples of the 12 patients, CBPH detected the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genome fragments in semen samples, but not in paired urine samples, of 3 of 12 patients. The existing SARS-CoV-2 genome fragments were metabolized over time.

CONCLUSIONS

Both OSN-qRT-PCR and cdPCR had better performance than qRT-PCR, and CBPH had the highest diagnostic performance in detecting SARS-CoV-2, which contributed the most improvement to the determination of the critical value in gray area samples with low vrial load, which then provides a rational screening strategy for studying the clearance of coronavirus in the semen over time in patients recovering from COVID-19. Although the presence of SARS-CoV-2 fragments in the semen was demonstrated by CBPH, COVID-19 is unlikely to be sexually transmitted from male partners for at least 3 months after hospital discharge.