This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
Published on July 16, 2020, a study led by Roberto Romero at the US National Institutes of Health shed light on why foetuses rarely get Covid-19.
The researchers found that the placenta, which plays a crucial role in stopping harmful substances from being passed down from a mother to her unborn child, lacks the instructions required to manufacture a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 or, ACE2.
ACE2 is found throughout the body in adults and is thought to be the entry point for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which attacks organs with high levels of ACE2 receptors, including the lungs, blood vessels, kidneys, and digestive system.
Additionally, the placenta's genetic material also lacked the instructions to make an enzyme, called TMPRSS2, that SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter a cell.
"The molecules that are required to make the cells susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection are rarely expressed in the placenta," Romero told AFP.
While the study found that the genetic instructions used to create the cell receptors attacked by the Zika virus and cytomegalovirus were present, the researchers noted that SARS-CoV-2 might infect foetuses by interacting with other proteins, not the ones they looked for.
