Does the human placenta express the canonical cell entry mediators for SARSCoV-2?

Authors

Roger Pique-Regi, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine
Roberto Romero, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine; University of Michigan; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Florida International University
Adi L. Tarca, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine; Wayne State University College of Engineering
Francesca Luca, Wayne State University School of Medicine
Yi Xu, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine
Adnan Alazizi, Wayne State University School of Medicine
Yaozha Leng, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine
Chaur-Dong Hsu, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine
Nardhy Gomex-Lopez, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Wayne State University School of Medicine

Date of this Version

7-14-2020

Document Type

Article

Rights

default

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 et al., 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.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Comments

Originally published in ELIFE.

Recommended Citation

Pique-Regi, Roger; Romero, Roberto; Tarca, Adi L.; Luca, Francesca; Xu, Yi; Alazizi, Adnan; Leng, Yaozha; Hsu, Chaur-Dong; and Gomex-Lopez, Nardhy, "Does the human placenta express the canonical cell entry mediators for SARSCoV-2?" (2020). Coronavirus Research at FIU. 6.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/covid-19_research/6