Immune System Responds Strongly To COVID-19 Infection During Pregnancy

Immune responses are similar between unvaccinated pregnant and nonpregnant women with acute or convalescent COVID-19, according to new research published in JCI Insight. These findings provide will help inform patient management and education about COVID-19 during pregnancy. As more epidemiological data emerge regarding COVID-19 pregnancies, it is essential to comprehensively define immune responses to understand whether SARS-CoV-2 immunity is prototypical.

The new study from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) looked at the immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in unvaccinated pregnant and non-pregnant women and found similar levels of antibodies and T and B cell responses, responsible for long-term protection.

Deepening the Understanding of COVID-19 Immunity in Pregnant Women

Healthy pregnant women have an elevated innate cell response compared to non-pregnant women, and during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, it does not increase any further, likely because it’s already so high.

Non-pregnant women however have low levels of innate cell activation when they are healthy, which is normal, and this increases during acute infection. Despite similarities in the immune responses between both groups, key differences were observed in the dynamics of innate immune cells as the first line of defense against viral infections.

The study included 68 participants during the acute and recovering phases of COVID-19 infection, and measured 217 different immunological parameters, making it one of the most comprehensive analyses of immune features in SARS-CoV-2 infection and pregnancy to date.

The differences in the first line of defense in pregnant women may explain why some pregnant women get sicker during COVID-19. The pre-activated state observed in pregnant women means their immune system responds differently to the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared to non-pregnant women.

Researchers are still unsure whether these pre-activated innate cells are protective or detrimental to disease progression, but further studies on correlates of COVID-19 severity during pregnancy will help us answer this.

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It is important to continue researching how the immune response to infectious diseases may differ during pregnancy, especially as pregnant women are a high-risk group for severe infection.

This study makes a case for why vaccination of pregnant women should be considered a major advantage, as COVID-19 vaccines specifically aim to induce B and T cell responses. The responses we saw in our study were similar between pregnant and non-pregnant women, suggesting prior infection and vaccination should offer some level of protection against future infection.

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Source-Eurekalert