ReviewCells2020
A Message from the Human Placenta: Structural and Immunomodulatory Defense against SARS-CoV-2.
Review in Cells, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pregnancy and COVID-19: high or low risk of vertical transmission.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Fetal vascular malperfusion and other placental lesions in relation to maternal SARS-CoV-2 exposure: a case-control study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Viral Vertical Transmission through the Placenta: The Potential of Natural Products as Therapeutic and Prophylactic Antiviral Agents.Current topics in medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Morphological Changes in the Placenta of Patients with COVID-19 During Pregnancy.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Placenta - A Competent, But Not Infallible, Antiviral and Antiparasitic Barrier.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2025Review
- The Interplay of Molecular Factors and Morphology in Human Placental Development and Implantation.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Cranial ultrasonographic findings in newborns exposed to SARS-CoV-2: a single-centre cross-sectional analysis.Italian journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Vitamin D Receptor-Interplay in COVID-19-Negative, -Infected, and -Vaccinated Women during Pregnancy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Shedding Light on the COVID-19 Pandemic: Placental Expression of Cell Biomarkers in Negative, Vaccinated, and Positive Pregnant Women.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Comparing the immunogenicity of COVID-19 infection and vaccination in pregnant women as measured by anti-S IgG.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Maternal obesity and placental function: impaired maternal-fetal axis.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2024Review
- Global Transcriptomic Analysis of Placentas from Women with Gestational SARS-CoV-2 Infection during the Third Trimester of Pregnancy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- COVID-19's Effect in Pregnancy and Vertical Transmission: A Systematic Review.International journal of preventive medicine · 2024Review
- A placental model of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals ACE2-dependent susceptibility and differentiation impairment in syncytiotrophoblasts.Nature cell biology · 2023Article
- Congenital SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two Neonates with Confirmation by Viral Culture of the Placenta in One Case.Viruses · 2023Article
- The effects of progesterone on immune cellular function at the maternal-fetal interface and in maternal circulation.The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology · 2023Review
- SARS-CoV-2 Transplacental Transmission: A Rare Occurrence? An Overview of the Protective Role of the Placenta.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- COVID-19 and pregnancy: clinical outcomes; mechanisms, and vaccine efficacy.Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global public health crisis. Viral infections may predispose pregnant women to a higher rate of pregnancy complications, including preterm births, miscarriage, and stillbirth. Despite reports of neonatal COVID-19, definitive proof of vertical transmission is still lacking. In this review, we summarize studies regarding the potential evidence for transplacental transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), characterize the expression of its receptors and proteases, describe the placental pathology and analyze virus-host interactions at the maternal-fetal interface. We focus on the syncytium, the barrier between mother and fetus, and describe in detail its physical and structural defense against viral infections. We further discuss the potential molecular mechanisms, whereby the placenta serves as a defense front against pathogens by regulating the interferon type III signaling, microRNA-triggered autophagy and the nuclear factor-κB pathway. Based on these data, we conclude that vertical transmission may occur but rare, ascribed to the potent physical barrier, the fine-regulated placental immune defense and modulation strategies. Particularly, immunomodulatory mechanisms employed by the placenta may mitigate violent immune response, maybe soften cytokine storm tightly associated with severely ill COVID-19 patients, possibly minimizing cell and tissue damages, and potentially reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.