Pinatel, Helene; Brien, Marie-Eve; Scott-Boyer, Marie-Pier; Broquière, Mathilde; Barry, Amadou 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3396-1724; Droit, Arnaud; Delbès, Géraldine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9169-1075; Girard, Sylvie; Chatel-Chaix, Laurent ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7390-8250 et Vaillancourt, Cathy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0543-6244
(2025).
Trophoblasts permissiveness to SARS-CoV-2 and sex-dependent effects of COVID-19 on the placenta multiomic profile
In: IFPA 2025, 17th-20th September 2020, Erfurt-Jena, Germany.
Résumé
Objectives: The effect of an infection by SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy on
the placenta remain poorly understood. Studies have shown the presence
of SARS-CoV-2 in human placental tissues and canonical viral entry factors ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are expressed in villous trophoblasts. Inflammatory and structural abnormalities have been observed in placental
tissues from infected pregnant persons, but the underlying mechanisms
are still unknown. Maternal infection during pregnancy with SARS-CoV-2
alters the development and functions of the placenta. Our specific objectives are to characterize the permissiveness of villous trophoblasts to
SARS-CoV-2 and to identify the placental mechanisms altered by maternal
infection.
Methods: Human primary villous trophoblasts were isolated from 4
placentas delivered at term from healthy pregnancies and infected with
multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2. Plaque assays and RT-qPCR were done to
assess trophoblastic permissiveness. Treatment with TMPRSS2 and
endosomal pathway inhibitors allowed to test the viral entry route.
Placenta samples collected from 43 pregnant persons infected during
pregnancy and 27 non-infected controls, at CHUSJ (Montreal, Canada)
were used to study protein expression by mass spectrometry and gene
expression by next-generation RNA-sequencing.
Results: Our data confirm that human trophoblasts are permissive to the
ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain (PreVOC) in vitro and the viral entry appear to
be mainly endosomal while in a lesser extend TMPRSS2-mediated,
depending on the donors. While the proteomic dataset did not identify
significant differences, gene expression analysis of placental tissues
detected about 22800 genes and identified 8 and 44 genes differentially
expressed (padj˂0.05; FC 1.5) respectively in XY and XX placentas. The
pathway enrichment analysis notably revealed an alteration of the cytoskeleton organization and of the reproductive process in the XX placentas
of the COVID+ group.
Conclusion: This study shed light on the mechanism of infection/entry of
SARS-CoV-2 in trophoblasts and that maternal infection during pregnancy
affect the placenta in a sex-dependent manner.
| Type de document: | Document issu d'une conférence ou d'un atelier |
|---|---|
| Informations complémentaires: | Affiche scientifique: P1.112 Placenta (2025) 171:e282 https://ifpa2025.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Abstract-Book_IFPA2025-1.pdf |
| Mots-clés libres: | - |
| Centre: | Centre INRS-Institut Armand Frappier |
| Date de dépôt: | 16 juin 2026 14:51 |
| Dernière modification: | 16 juin 2026 14:51 |
| URI: | https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/16780 |
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