Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, 56-45 Main Street Flushing, New York, NY 11355, USA.
National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510182, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Jul 15;25(14):7731. doi: 10.3390/ijms25147731.
To better understand the vulnerabilities of pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a comprehensive, retrospective cohort study to assess differences in immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection between pregnant and non-pregnant women. Nasopharyngeal swabs and serum specimens from 90 pregnant and 278 age-matched non-pregnant women were collected from 15 March 2020 to 23 July 2021 at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital in New York City. Multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, neutralizing antibody, and cytokine array assays were used to assess the incidence, viral load, antibody titers and profiles, and examine cytokine expression patterns. Our results show a lower incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women compared with non-pregnant women. Pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 exhibited a substantially lower viral load. In addition, the levels of both anti-spike protein receptor-binding domain IgG neutralizing antibodies and anti-N Protein IgG were elevated in pregnant women. Finally, cytokine profiling revealed differential expression of leptin across cohorts. These findings suggest that pregnancy is associated with distinct immune and virological responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by lower infection rates, substantially lower viral loads, and enhanced antibody production. Differential cytokine expression indicates unique immune modulation in pregnant women.
为了更好地了解 COVID-19 大流行期间孕妇的脆弱性，我们进行了一项全面的回顾性队列研究，以评估孕妇和非孕妇对 SARS-CoV-2 感染的免疫反应差异。我们于 2020 年 3 月 15 日至 2021 年 7 月 23 日，从纽约市纽约长老会皇后医院采集了 90 名孕妇和 278 名年龄匹配的非孕妇的鼻咽拭子和血清标本。我们使用多重逆转录聚合酶链反应、中和抗体和细胞因子阵列分析来评估发病率、病毒载量、抗体滴度和谱，并检查细胞因子表达模式。我们的结果表明，与非孕妇相比，孕妇的 SARS-CoV-2 感染发生率较低。感染 SARS-CoV-2 的孕妇的病毒载量明显较低。此外，孕妇的抗刺突蛋白受体结合域 IgG 中和抗体和抗 N 蛋白 IgG 水平均升高。最后，细胞因子谱分析显示，两个队列中瘦素的表达存在差异。这些发现表明，妊娠与 SARS-CoV-2 感染的独特免疫和病毒学反应相关，其特征是感染率较低、病毒载量显著降低以及抗体产生增强。细胞因子表达的差异表明孕妇存在独特的免疫调节。
