ReviewTherapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism2021
Testosterone target therapy: focus on immune response, controversies and clinical implications in patients with COVID-19 infection.
Review in Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of serum total testosterone and luteinizing hormone variations across hospitalized Covid-19 patients.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Age-Dependent Relationships Between Disease Risk and Testosterone Levels: Relevance to COVID-19 Disease.American journal of men's healthPooled it
- Association between sex hormones and innate cytotoxic capacity of circulating and rectal mucosal immune cells.Clinical immunology communications · 2026Article
- Trends and mortality due to acute respiratory distress syndrome in the United States (1999-2023): A 25-year nationwide study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Sex hormones and gender differences in immune responses and anticancer immunity: a comprehensive review.Biologia futura · 2026Review
- The immune microenvironment and population heterogeneity in myasthenia gravis: implications for precision therapeutics.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Integrative Transcriptomic and Network Pharmacology Analysis Reveals Key Targets and Mechanisms ofPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Effect of Pituitary-Target Gland Axis on RAAS in the Context of COVID-19.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Review
- Sex disparities in hepatocellular carcinoma immunotherapy: hormonal and genetic influences on treatment efficacy.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Correlation between SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody titers and the hormones DHEA, cortisol, testosterone, and progesterone.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Sex differences in the cardiac stress response following SARS-CoV-2 infection of ferrets.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2023Article
- Hormone Replacement Therapy Does Not Eliminate Risk Factors for Joint Complications following Total Joint Arthroplasty: A Matched Cohort Study.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2023Article
- Sex hormones in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility: key players or confounders?Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2023Review
- Testosterone and soluble ST2 as mortality predictive biomarkers in male patients with sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
- Cross-talk between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the insulin/IGF signaling pathway: Implications for metabolic diseases in COVID-19 and for post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Metabolism: clinical and experimental · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs the insulin/IGF signaling pathway in the lung, liver, adipose tissue, and pancreatic cells via IRF1.Metabolism: clinical and experimental · 2022Article
- Could SARS-CoV-2 infection affect male fertility and sexuality?APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica · 2022Review
- Stem cell therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia.Molecular biomedicine · 2022Review
- Testosterone in males with COVID-19: A 7-month cohort study.Andrology · 2022Article
- The Effect of Pre-operative Psychological Interventions on Psychological, Physiological, and Immunological Indices in Oncology Patients: A Scoping Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The pandemic acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) named COVID-19 is causing a severe health emergency, and an individual's hormonal milieu may play an important role in both susceptibility to infection and severity of clinical course. We analyzed the role of testosterone in the immune response, and we hypothesized possible mechanisms to explain the high incidence of COVID-19 infection and a worse clinical course in elderly male patients. Testosterone may impair the immune response, and this effect could explain the greater susceptibility of men to infection. Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) plays a crucial role in the entry of the virus into the respiratory epithelial cells, leading to COVID-19 disease. It is crucial to emphasize that testosterone levels and chemical castration (e.g. by androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer) may have contrasting roles in the phases of COVID-19 infection. Whereas low testosterone levels may be protective against the initial susceptibility (due to a restoration of immunological functions and a block of TMPRSS2), low testosterone may stimulate a worse clinical course in the advanced COVID-19 infection as it could exacerbate or activate the cytokine storm. If testosterone levels play these different roles, it is necessary to carefully identify patients for any indicated testosterone manipulation.
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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.