Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mahé, Dominique
• Bourgeau, Salomé
• Frouard, Julie
• Joguet, Guillaume
• Pasquier, Christophe
• Bujan, Louis
• Dejucq-Rainsford, Nathalie

Titel

Long-term Zika virus infection of non-sperm cells in semen

Ist Teil von

• The Lancet infectious diseases, 2020-12, Vol.20 (12), p.1371-1371

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Viral RNAis present in both the plasma and whole-cell fractions of semen,4 and infectious virus is found inseminal plasma and spermatozoa,4 with viral antigen found in spermatozoa in one patient 56 days after symptom onset.5 We have also shown that Zika virus infects the human testis ex vivo and that productively infected sperm progenitors (ie, testicular germ cells) are shed in semen from acutely infected patients.6 In this Correspondence, we report the characterisation of seminal non-sperm cells infected by Zika virus in three patients (patients 6, 13, and 15) from our published cohort,4 for whom we collected longitudinal semen smears up to 160 days after symptom onset. Through analysis of cell markers (DDX4, EPCAM, CD14, CD68, and MPO) and Zika virus antigens (envelope [E] and non-structural protein 1 [NS1]) by immunofluorescence microscopy (appendix),we found persistent shedding of Zika virus-infected testicular germ cells in the semen of all three patients. Persistent infection of non-sperm cells contributes to viral shedding and could explain the prolonged Zika virus excretion reported in semen from vasectomised men.3 The data are important and highlight the need for further studies to decipher Zika virus localisation within the human male genital tract and its consequences for reproductive function and sexual transmission.