Does the human placenta express the canonical cell entry mediators for SARS-CoV-2?
- Wayne State University, United States
Abstract
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected more than 10 million people, including pregnant women. To date, no consistent evidence for the vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 exists. The novel coronavirus canonically utilizes the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and the serine protease TMPRSS2 for cell entry. Herein, building upon our previous single-cell study (Pique-Regi, 2019), another study, and new single-cell/nuclei RNA-sequencing data, we investigated the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 throughout pregnancy in the placenta as well as in third-trimester chorioamniotic membranes. We report that co-transcription of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 is negligible in the placenta, thus not a likely path of vertical transmission for SARS-CoV-2. By contrast, receptors for Zika virus and cytomegalovirus, which cause congenital infections, are highly expressed by placental cell types. These data show that the placenta minimally expresses the canonical cell-entry mediators for SARS-CoV-2.
Data availability
Placenta and decidua scRNA-seq data from first-trimester samples were downloaded through ArrayExpress (E-MTAB-6701). Data for third-trimester samples previously collected by our group are available through NIH dbGAP (accession number phs001886.v1.p1), and newly generated second-trimester scRNA-seq and third-trimester snRNA-seq data are being deposited in the same repository.
Article and author information
Author details
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez
Funding
National Institutes of Health (HHSN275201300006C)
- Roberto Romero
Wayne State University (Perinatal Initiative)
- Adi L Tarca
- Nardhy Gomez-Lopez
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: The collection and use of human materials for research purposes were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Wayne State University School of Medicine [IRB# 110605MP2F(RCR), IRB# 082403MP2F(5R), and IRB# 031318MP2F]. All participating women provided written informed consent prior to sample collection.
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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Does the human placenta express the canonical cell entry mediators for SARS-CoV-2?
eLife 9:e58716.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58716
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