The findings of a new study support an increasing body of evidence suggesting that pregnant women contracting the new coronavirus transmit protective antibodies to their newborns.
A study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the scientific name for the virus that causes COVID-19, can cross the placenta – even when the mother was only asymptomatic. exposure to the virus. In addition, the researchers said that the concentration of antibodies found in the newborns ‘blood is similar to the concentration found in their mothers’ blood.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that women who were infected with the new virus earlier in their pregnancies transmitted even more antibodies to their fetus compared to those who were infected later. (iStock)
(iStock)
Interestingly, the researchers also found that women who were infected with the new virus earlier in their pregnancies transmitted even more antibodies to their fetus compared to those infected later.
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, may help clarify when pregnant women should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
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“Overall, our findings are consistent with what we know about the transmission of antibodies to other viruses across the placenta, and should contribute to the discussion on whether and when to vaccinate pregnant women against SARS-CoV-2,” he said. -enior writer said. Scott Hensley, Ph.D., in a statement. Hensley is also an associate professor of microbiology at Penn Medicine and a member of the Penn Institute for Immunology.
To achieve these results, the researchers are looking for evidence of antibodies in blood samples taken from more than 1,400 women and their newborns. They found that 83 women had ‘significant levels’ of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, while 87% of these women’s newborns also showed a significant level of these antibodies in blood samples taken from the umbilical cord during birth.
“The study found no evidence that the antibodies were due to fetal infection, suggesting that the antibodies probably crossed the placenta from the mother’s blood to the fetal circulation,” reads a news release on the findings.
Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies – the most common class of antibodies in the blood – apparently transmitted “easily” across the placenta, and the levels of these specific antibodies in newborns were at the same level as those found in their mothers.
“A class of larger antibodies, known as IgM antibodies, which were previously produced in an infection and which do not cross the placenta, were not found in any cord blood sample,” the researchers said. “Since infants have some ability to produce their own IgM antibodies, the absence of these antibodies also suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself did not cross the placenta and did not infect them.”
“This transfer appears to be quite effective. In some cases, the newborn’s blood concentration of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was even higher than the mother’s,” said fellow senior writer Karen Puopolo, MD, MD. a neonatologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an associate professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and head of the Department of Newborn Medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital, in a statement.
The team’s findings support past evidence that pregnant women can transmit protective antibodies against the virus to fetuses. In December, a study from Singapore found that five babies born to mothers who had COVID-19 while pregnant were born with antibodies to the coronavirus.
There are still studies on the effects that COVID-19 can have on pregnant women and babies, with a recently published National Institutes of Health-funded study suggesting that pregnant women with severe COVID-19 disease have an increased risk of death and premature delivery compared to those with asymptomatic cases of the disease. These findings advance similar conclusions drawn by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in November.
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The CDC and the World Health Organization both recommend that pregnant women receive a COVID-19 vaccine, while the latter recently reversed their position on this ongoing debate.
While neither the Moderna vaccine nor the one created by Pfizer-BioNTech has been specifically approved for use in pregnant women, no safety concerns have been demonstrated in rats that [the] Modern COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy, “says the CDC on its website, adding that” studies on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are ongoing. “