While COVID-19 disease significantly impacts many pregnant women, the rates of transmission from mother to baby in pregnancy are very low. A new BUSM study has demonstrated that ACE-2, the receptor that allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter cells, is found in lower levels in the placentas of women with COVID-19 in pregnancy compared to women with normal (COVID negative) pregnancies.
“We think that when a woman has COVID-19 in pregnancy, the placenta is shedding off ACE-2 as a way to block SARS-CoV-2 from being passed to the fetus,” explained co-corresponding author Elizabeth S. Taglauer, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics.
