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. 2024 Nov 26;43(11):114933.
doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114933. Epub 2024 Nov 5.

SARS-CoV-2 infection elucidates features of pregnancy-specific immunity

Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 infection elucidates features of pregnancy-specific immunity

Dong Sun Oh et al. Cell Rep. .

Abstract

Pregnancy is a risk factor for increased severity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other respiratory infections, but the mechanisms underlying this risk are poorly understood. To gain insight into the role of pregnancy in modulating immune responses at baseline and upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, we collected peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma from 226 women, including 152 pregnant individuals and 74 non-pregnant women. We find that SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with altered T cell responses in pregnant women, including a clonal expansion of CD4-expressing CD8+ T cells, diminished interferon responses, and profound suppression of monocyte function. We also identify shifts in cytokine and chemokine levels in the sera of pregnant individuals, including a robust increase of interleukin-27, known to drive T cell exhaustion. Our findings reveal nuanced pregnancy-associated immune responses, which may contribute to the increased susceptibility of pregnant individuals to viral respiratory infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; CP: Immunology; SARS-CoV-2; T cells; cytokines; immune cells; immune responses; maternal immune activation; pregnancy; single-cell RNA-seq.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests A.-C.V. has a financial interest in 10X Genomics. The company designs and manufactures gene-sequencing technology for use in research, and such technology is being used in this research. A.-C.V.’s interests were reviewed by The Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass General Brigham in accordance with their institutional policies. J.R.H. consults for CJ CheilJedang and Interon Laboratories. A.G.E. consults for Mirvie, Inc. outside of this work and receives research funding from Merck Pharmaceuticals outside of this work. K.J.G. has served as a consultant for BillionToOne, Aetion, Roche, and Janssen Global Services outside of this work.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Comparative T cell analyses of pregnant versus non-pregnant patients with COVID-19
(A) A schematic of the analyses performed in this paper: non-pregnant versus pregnant women with or without COVID-19. (B) CD25+ FOXP3+-expressing CD4+ T cell frequencies in PBMCs. (C and D) Left panels show CM (CD45RO+ CCR7+) and right panels show EM (CD45RO+ CCR7) frequencies in CD4+ T cells (CD19 CD3+ CD4+) (C) and CD8+ (CD19 CD3+ CD8+) T cells (D) in PBMCs. (E and F) Frequencies of CD8+ T cells expressing (E) PD-1 and Tim-3 and (F) IL-2 and TNF-α. Healthy (non-pregnant, n = 19; pregnant, n = 34), severe/critical COVID-19 (non-pregnant, n = 9; pregnant, n = 15), or convalescent COVID-19 (non-pregnant, n = 18; pregnant, n = 22). Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Pregnancy enhances monocyte function
(A) Representative fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) plots and quantifications of classical monocytes (CD14+), intermediate monocytes (CD14+CD16+), and non-classical monocytes (CD16+) as analyzed by flow cytometry from PBMCs. (B) Mean fluorescence intensities (MFIs) of HLA-DR expression in classical, intermediate, and alternative monocytes. (C) Frequencies of Ki67, a proliferation marker, expressed in classical, intermediate, and alternative monocytes. (D and E) A heatmap presenting monocyte-secreted cytokines upon 1 ng/mL LPS stimulation (D) and representative cytokine levels in the supernatant as quantified by cytometric bead array analyses (E). Healthy (non-pregnant, n = 19; pregnant, n = 34), severe/critical COVID-19 (non-pregnant, n = 9; pregnant, n = 15), or convalescent COVID-19 (non-pregnant, n = 18; pregnant, n = 22). Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Changes in CD8+ T cell clonal expansion and cell subset abundances in pregnant patients with COVID-19
(A) Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) embedding of 50,140 CD8+ T and NK cells and their clustering to 13 cell subsets (left). Expression of main marker genes, scaled mean log (counts per million, CPM) (right). (B) A boxplot illustrating the abundance of CD8+ T cell subsets out of all CD8+ T and NK cells. (C) Frequency of TCR clones projected on CD8+ T and NK cell UMAP and split by condition (SEV, severe; ASX, asymptomatic; CTRL, control). (D) A boxplot illustrating the percentage of expanded clones out of total expanded clones per cell subset in pregnant versus non-pregnant COVID-19 patients. (E) Gene and protein expression that characterize cell subset CD8T_3_cytotoxic_CD4; hex bin plots with log(CPM). (F) TCR clones with specificity to SARS-CoV-2 projected onto CD8+ T and NK UMAPs. (G) Percentage of TCR clones with specificity to SARS-CoV-2 epitopes out of total cells in each cell subset (x axis) and number of cells with SARS-CoV-2 specificity (annotation at the end of the bars). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. ISGs are downregulated in pregnant patients with COVID-19
(A) UMAP embedding of 50,140 CD8+ T and NK cells and their clustering to 13 cell subsets. (B) A boxplot illustrating the expression signature of 91 ISGs across CD8+ T cell subsets in pregnant versus non-pregnant COVID-19 patients. (C) UMAP embedding of 66,719 mononuclear phagocyte (MNP) cells and their clustering to eight cell subsets. (D) A boxplot illustrating the expression signature of 91 ISGs across MNP cell subsets in pregnant versus non-pregnant COVID-19 patients. (E) UMAP embedding of 29,960 CD4+ T cells and their clustering to eight cell subsets. (F) A boxplot illustrating the expression signature of 91 ISGs across CD4 T cell subsets in pregnant versus non-pregnant COVID-19 patients. (G) UMAP embedding of 19,168 B and plasma cells and their clustering to nine cell subsets. (H) A boxplot illustrating the expression signature of 91 ISGs across B cell subsets in pregnant versus non-pregnant COVID-19 patients. (I) A boxplot illustrating the B_3_naive_ISG cell subset abundances in pregnant versus non-pregnant COVID-19 patients. NonPreg_COVID includes non-pregnant patients with asymptomatic and severe COVID-19; Preg_COVID includes pregnant patients with asymptomatic and severe COVID-19. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.. Comparative analyses of plasma cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors of pregnant versus non-pregnant control and COVID-19 patients
Concentrations of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors in pregnant and non-pregnant women who were healthy (non-pregnant, n = 17; pregnant, n = 21) or who had mild (non-pregnant, n = 12; pregnant, n = 21), moderate (non-pregnant, n = 9; pregnant, n = 6), or severe/critical (non-pregnant, n = 10; pregnant, n = 11) COVID-19. Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Update of

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