SITC Archive Library

Lunaphore Technologies hosted "The morpho-molecular features of COVID-19 placentitis: A high dimensional, multi-omic approach," a sponsored symposia during the 2021 SITC Annual Meeting. Available here is the recording from the symposia.

Program Summary

A proportion of maternal COVID-19 infections are complicated by COVID-19 placentitis, leading to intra-uterine death. Little is known about the processes that drive this devastating condition. The aim is to describe the inflammatory response in COVID-19 placentitis using complimentary multi-omic approaches. FFPE tissue from 13 cases of maternal COVID-19 infection and 11 control placentas underwent multiplex immunohistochemistry (mIHC) (30 markers) on the Lunaphore COMET platform. Transcriptomic profiling by in-situ hybridisation (ISH) and bulk gene expression sequencing (GES) was also performed. Direct SARS-CoV-2 infection of the trophoblast was demonstrated in 6/13 cases by mIHC (spike+, nucleocapsid+) and confirmed by ISH and GES. SARS-CoV-2+ cases show a histiocytic (CD68) intervillous infiltrate with associated T-cells (CD3+). GES showed upregulation of CXCL10 and interferon pathways. CXCL10 expression was demonstrated in histiocytes on mIHC. COVID-19 placentitis is characterised by direct infection of the villous trophoblast, histiocytic intervillousitis and associated CXCL10 /interferon mediated inflammation.

Sponsored Symposia content and views expressed therein are those of the sponsoring organization and not of SITC.