Review
Functional consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women, fetoplacental unit, and neonate

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2022.166582Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • COVID-19 causes functional alterations in pregnant women, fetuses, and neonates.

  • Inflammation and risk of infection are seen in pregnant women with COVID-19.

  • Pregnant women with COVID-19 show asymptomatic and symptomatic infection.

  • Vertical transplacental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is still unclear.

  • Post-COVID-19 consequences are now needed to understand critically.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 infection causes COVID-19 disease, characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome, bilateral pneumonia, and organ failure. The consequences of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection for the pregnant woman, fetus, and neonate are controversial. Thus, it is required to determine whether there is viral and non-viral vertical transmission in COVID-19. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 leads to functional alterations in asymptomatic and symptomatic pregnant women, the fetoplacental unit and the neonate. Several diseases of pregnancy, including COVID-19, affect the fetoplacental function, which causes in utero programming for young and adult diseases. A generalized inflammatory state and a higher risk of infection are seen in pregnant women with COVID-19. Obesity, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension may increase the vulnerability of pregnant women to infection by SARS-CoV-2. Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 show specific mutations that seem to increase the capacity of the virus to infect the pregnant woman, likely due to increasing its interaction via the virus S protein and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptors. This review shows the literature addressing to what extent COVID-19 in pregnancy affects the pregnant woman, fetoplacental unit, and neonate. Prospective studies that are key in managing SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy are discussed.

Keywords

Virus
Pregnancy
Placenta
Fetus
Neonate
Covid-19

Data availability

No data was used for the research described in the article.

Cited by (0)