ArticlePhysiological reports2021
17β-estradiol reduces SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro.
Article in Physiological reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of Androgen Suppression on Clinical Outcomes in Hospitalized Men With COVID-19: The HITCH Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Transdermal 17β-Estradiol for the Treatment of COVID-19: Protocol of an Early Terminated Phase 2 Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Influence of Sex and 1,25α Dihydroxyvitamin DPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A comparative analysis of estrogen receptors, ACE2 and cytokines in pre-and postmenopausal women and men with COVID-19.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Repercussion of SARS-CoV-2 on the Sexual Function in Males: An Updated Review.Infectious disorders drug targets · 2025Review
- Current use of estrogen-containing oral contraceptives or hormone therapy and risk of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization: a population-based cohort study.American journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Sex hormones in COVID-19 severity: The quest for evidence and influence mechanisms.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Antiviral, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of curcumin and curcuminoids in SH-SY5Y cells infected by SARS-CoV-2.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Disruptive 3D in vitro models for respiratory disease investigation: A state-of-the-art approach focused on SARS-CoV-2 infection.Biomaterials and biosystems · 2023Article
- Identification of Histopathological Biomarkers in Fatal Cases of Coronavirus Disease: A Study on Lung Tissue.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Sex hormones in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility: key players or confounders?Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2023Review
- Proteins in pregnant swine serum promote the African swine fever virus replication: an iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis.Virology journal · 2023Article
- Pregnancy-induced differential expression of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza a viral entry factors in the lower respiratory tract.PloS one · 2023Article
- Estrogens as a Possible Therapeutic Strategy for the Management of Neuroinflammation and Neuroprotection in COVID-19.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Article
- Vitamin D and estrogen steroid hormones and their immunogenetic roles in Infectious respiratory (TB and COVID-19) diseases.Genetics and molecular biology · 2023Article
- Overexpression of estrogen receptor GPER1 and G1 treatment reduces SARS-CoV-2 infection in BEAS-2B bronchial cells.Molecular and cellular endocrinology · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication kinetics in different human cell types: The role of autophagy, cellular metabolism and ACE2 expression.Life sciences · 2022Article
- 17β-Oestradiol Protects from Hepatitis C Virus Infection through Induction of Type I Interferon.Viruses · 2022Article
- Effect of Norelgestromin and Ethinylestradiol in Transdermal Patches on the Clinical Outcomes and Biochemical Parameters of COVID-19 Patients: A Clinical Trial Pilot Study.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Estradiol reduces ACE2 and TMPRSS2 mRNA levels in A549 human lung epithelial cells.Drug development research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The COVID-19 has originated from Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has been affecting the public health system, society, and economy in an unheard-of manner. There is no specific treatment or vaccine available for COVID-19. Previous data showed that men are more affected than women by COVID-19, then we hypothesized whether sex hormones could be protecting the female organism against the infection. VERO E6 cells have been commonly used as in vitro model for SARS-CoV-2 infection. In our experimental approach, we have treated VERO E6 cells with 17β-estradiol to evaluate the modulation of SARS-CoV-2 infection in this cell line. Here we demonstrated that estrogen protein receptors ERα, ERβ, and GPER1 are expressed by VERO E6 cells and could be used to study the effects of this steroid hormone. Previous and 24-hours post-infection, cells treated with 17β-estradiol revealed a reduction in the viral load. Afterward, we found that SARS-CoV-2 infection per se results in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 increased gene expression in VERO E6-cell, which could be generating a cycle of virus infection in host cells. The estrogen treatment reduces the levels of the TMPRSS2, which are involved with SARS-CoV-2 infectiveness capacity, and hence, reducing the pathogenicity/genesis. These data suggest that estrogen could be a potential therapeutic target promoting cell protection against SARS-CoV-2. This opens new possibilities for further studies on 17β-estradiol in human cell lines infected by SARS-CoV-2 and at least in part, explain why men developed a more severe COVID-19 compared to women.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.