COVID-19 may alter offspring’s brain development, cause anxious behaviour, study in mice finds

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Changes in sperm caused by COVID-19 in a mouse could affect the offspring’s brain development and cause anxious behaviours, a study has found, suggesting that the viral disease may have long-lasting effects on future generations, even as the results would need to be verified in humans, researchers said. The team from Australia’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health found that an offspring mouse conceived after a father has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and developed COVID-19 symptoms have higher levels of anxiety-like behaviours. “We let male mice recover from SARS-CoV-2 infection for a few weeks before they mated with healthy females. We found that the resulting offspring showed more anxious behaviours compared to offspring from uninfected