Avicenna Research Institute

To overcome COVID-19 long-term consequences, one possible approach is to control inflammasomes activation, because SARS-CoV-2 can induce humoral and cellular immune responses. In this opinion article we hypothesized that if it is proven with convincing and unmistakable evidence that firstly, SARS-CoV-2 can enter cells and damage them through its common receptors in the reproductive tissues, and secondly, inflammasome pathway activation is responsible for the damages caused, then the inflammasome inhibitors might be considered as suitable candidates in preventing the pathological effects on the germ cells and reproductive tissues and subsequent fertility.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells which are popular in human regenerative medicine. These cells can renew themselves and differentiate into several specialized cell types including osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes under physiological and experimental conditions. MSCs can secret a lot of components including proteins and metabolites. These components have significant effects on their surrounding cells and also can be used to characterize them. This characterization of multipotent MSCs plays a critical role in their therapeutic potential. The metabolic profile of culture media verified by applying matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) techniques. Also, the differentiation and development of MSCs have monitored through culture media metabolome or secretome (secreted metabolites). Totally, 24 potential metabolites were identified. Between them 12 metabolites are unique to BM-MSCs and 5 metabolites are unique to AD-MSCs. Trilineage differentiation including chondrocytes, osteoblasts, and adipocytes, as well as metabolites that are being differentiated, have been shown in different weeks. In the present study, the therapeutic effects of MSCs analyzed by decoding the metabolome for MSCs secretome via metabolic profiling using MALDI-TOF-MS techniques.