
BIORXIV . ORG {
}
Title:
SARS-CoV-2 infection disrupts syncytial and endothelial integrity and alters PLGF levels in the placenta | bioRxiv
Description:
Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy has been associated with an increased risk for several pregnancy-related disorders, particularly preeclampsia (PE). However, there are limited studies determining the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on placental physiology and function. Methods: Placental samples were acquired from two large prospective cohorts: STOP-COVID19 and REBRACO studies. Placental villous tissues (VTs) were collected from pregnant women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 without PE during pregnancy. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to assess pathological features known to be altered in PE, including 1) syncytial knot formation; 2) alterations in renin-angiotensin system components; 3) and endothelial integrity. Maternal serum was collected to examine AT1 autoantibodies levels using an immunoassay. Results: SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins spike, nucleocapsid, and ORF3a were observed in the syncytiotrophoblast layer and stroma of placental VT. SARS-CoV-2-infected placentas exhibited increased numbers of syncytial knots, which were positive for Flt-1 and SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins. In addition, the presence of placental infarctions and excessive fibrin deposits was also observed in infected placentas. Infection was associated with decreased placental expression of PlGF and an increase in the placental Flt-1/PlGF expression ratio, mostly driven by PlGF. No significant changes in maternal serum AT1AA levels were observed. Finally, SARS-CoV-2-infected placentas exhibited a significant decrease in vimentin expression. Discussion: SARS-CoV-2 infection negatively impacts placental integrity in the form of increased syncytial knots, dysregulated RAS components, and endothelial damage. Since all these features are similarly disrupted in PE, this could be a mechanism through which SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy increases the risk of a PE-like syndrome. ### Competing Interest Statement IUM serves on the scientific advisory board of Seed Health. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. National Institutes of Health, R01HD091218-04S1
Website Age:
12 years and 2 months (reg. 2013-04-08).
Matching Content Categories {📚}
- Science
- Education
- Family & Parenting
Content Management System {📝}
What CMS is biorxiv.org built with?
Website use Drupal 7 (http://drupal.org).
Traffic Estimate {📈}
What is the average monthly size of biorxiv.org audience?
💥 Very Strong Traffic: 200k - 500k visitors per month
Based on our best estimate, this website will receive around 250,019 visitors per month in the current month.
However, some sources were not loaded, we suggest to reload the page to get complete results.
check SE Ranking
check Ahrefs
check Similarweb
check Ubersuggest
check Semrush
How Does Biorxiv.org Make Money? {💸}
We're unsure if the website is profiting.
Some websites aren't about earning revenue; they're built to connect communities or raise awareness. There are numerous motivations behind creating websites. This might be one of them. Biorxiv.org might be plotting its profit, but the way they're doing it isn't detectable yet.
Keywords {🔍}
sarscov, placental, biology, infection, preprint, syncytial, medrxiv, subject, reviews, clinical, results, endothelial, integrity, plgf, levels, pregnancy, increased, observed, placentas, expression, health, biorxiv, university, microbiology, trials, epidemiology, search, peer, pdf, risk, studies, physiology, collected, positive, features, components, maternal, serum, viral, proteins, sarscovinfected, exhibited, knots, significant, competing, scientific, authors, financial, paper, information,
Topics {✒️}
sars-cov-2-infected placentas exhibited epidemiology subject categories clinical trials sars-cov-2 viral proteins renin-angiotensin system components genetics microbiology biorxiv subject category sars-cov-2 infection epidemiology papers author/funder reviews peer review [ scientific advisory board keyword advanced search increased syncytial knots competing financial interests health-related information decreased placental expression syncytial knot formation dysregulated ras components infected placentas placental villous tissues alters plgf levels arthur antolini-tavares maria laura costa large prospective cohorts excessive fibrin deposits generous financial support chan zuckerberg initiative imperial college london vrije universiteit amsterdam articles animal behavior sars-cov-2 limited studies determining r01hd091218-04s1 copyright assess pathological features context pregnancy-related disorders placental physiology maternal serum syncytial knots endothelial integrity increased risk vimentin expression placental samples placental vt placental infarctions seed health rebraco studies
Questions {❓}
- This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?
Social Networks {👍}(4)
- https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.27.661568v1/highwire_log/share/twitter?link=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fshare%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Fwww.biorxiv.org%2Fcontent%2F10.1101%2F2025.06.27.661568v1%26text%3DSARS-CoV-2%2520infection%2520disrupts%2520syncytial%2520and%2520endothelial%2520integrity%2520and%2520alters%2520PLGF%2520levels%2520in%2520the%2520placenta
- https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.27.661568v1/highwire_log/share/facebook?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsharer.php%3Fu%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Fwww.biorxiv.org%2Fcontent%2F10.1101%2F2025.06.27.661568v1%26t%3DSARS-CoV-2%2520infection%2520disrupts%2520syncytial%2520and%2520endothelial%2520integrity%2520and%2520alters%2520PLGF%2520levels%2520in%2520the%2520placenta
- https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.27.661568v1/highwire_log/share/linkedin?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2FshareArticle%3Fmini%3Dtrue%26url%3Dhttps%253A%2F%2Fwww.biorxiv.org%2Fcontent%2F10.1101%2F2025.06.27.661568v1%26title%3DSARS-CoV-2%2520infection%2520disrupts%2520syncytial%2520and%2520endothelial%2520integrity%2520and%2520alters%2520PLGF%2520levels%2520in%2520the%2520placenta%26summary%3D%26source%3DbioRxiv
- http://twitter.com/share?url=https%3A//www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.27.661568v1&count=horizontal&via=&text=SARS-CoV-2%20infection%20disrupts%20syncytial%20and%20endothelial%20integrity%20and%20alters%20PLGF%20levels%20in%20the%20placenta&counturl=www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.27.661568v1
External Links {🔗}(5)
- How much revenue does http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3917-8677 produce monthly?
- What's the total monthly financial gain of http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?
- https://submit.medrxiv.org's total income per month
- How much profit is https://web.hypothes.is/ making per month?
- What's the monthly money flow for https://www.altmetric.com/?
Analytics and Tracking {📊}
- Google Analytics
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Tag Manager
Libraries {📚}
- Clipboard.js
- jQuery
- Modernizr
Emails and Hosting {✉️}
Mail Servers:
- usb-smtp-inbound-1.mimecast.com
- usb-smtp-inbound-2.mimecast.com
Name Servers:
- jen.ns.cloudflare.com
- vin.ns.cloudflare.com
CDN Services {📦}
- Jsdelivr