Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
JCI Insight. 2023 Apr 10;8(7):e167157. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.167157.
Pregnancy poses a greater risk for severe COVID-19; however, underlying immunological changes associated with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy are poorly understood. We defined immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in unvaccinated pregnant and nonpregnant women with acute and convalescent COVID-19, quantifying 217 immunological parameters. Humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 were similar in pregnant and nonpregnant women, although our systems serology approach revealed distinct antibody and FcγR profiles between pregnant and nonpregnant women. Cellular analyses demonstrated marked differences in NK cell and unconventional T cell activation dynamics in pregnant women. Healthy pregnant women displayed preactivated NK cells and γδ T cells when compared with healthy nonpregnant women, which remained unchanged during acute and convalescent COVID-19. Conversely, nonpregnant women had prototypical activation of NK and γδ T cells. Activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and T follicular helper cells was similar in SARS-CoV-2-infected pregnant and nonpregnant women, while antibody-secreting B cells were increased in pregnant women during acute COVID-19. Elevated levels of IL-8, IL-10, and IL-18 were found in pregnant women in their healthy state, and these cytokine levels remained elevated during acute and convalescent COVID-19. Collectively, we demonstrate perturbations in NK cell and γδ T cell activation in unvaccinated pregnant women with COVID-19, which may impact disease progression and severity during pregnancy.
妊娠使 COVID-19 重症的风险增加；然而，妊娠期间与 SARS-CoV-2 相关的潜在免疫变化仍知之甚少。我们在急性和恢复期 COVID-19 的未接种疫苗的孕妇和非孕妇中定义了对 SARS-CoV-2 的免疫反应，定量了 217 个免疫参数。孕妇和非孕妇对 SARS-CoV-2 的体液反应相似，尽管我们的系统血清学方法揭示了孕妇和非孕妇之间不同的抗体和 FcγR 特征。细胞分析表明，孕妇 NK 细胞和非常规 T 细胞的激活动力学存在明显差异。与健康非孕妇相比，健康孕妇显示出预先激活的 NK 细胞和 γδ T 细胞，而在急性和恢复期 COVID-19 期间，这种情况并未改变。相反，非孕妇的 NK 和 γδ T 细胞具有典型的激活。感染 SARS-CoV-2 的孕妇和非孕妇的 CD4+和 CD8+T 细胞和滤泡辅助 T 细胞的激活相似，而急性 COVID-19 期间孕妇的抗体分泌 B 细胞增加。在健康状态下，孕妇体内发现白细胞介素 8、10 和 18 的水平升高，在急性和恢复期 COVID-19 期间这些细胞因子水平仍然升高。总之，我们在未接种疫苗的 COVID-19 孕妇中发现 NK 细胞和 γδ T 细胞激活失调，这可能会影响妊娠期间疾病的进展和严重程度。
