No evidence of fetal defects or anti-syncytin-1 antibody induction following COVID-19 mRNA vaccination

The impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccination on pregnancy and fertility has become a major topic of public interest. We investigated 2 of the most widely propagated claims to determine (1) whether COVID-19 mRNA vaccination of mice during early pregnancy is associated with an in...

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Veröffentlicht in:PLoS biology 2022-05, Vol.20 (5), p.e3001506
Hauptverfasser: Lu-Culligan, Alice, Tabachnikova, Alexandra, Pérez-Then, Eddy, Tokuyama, Maria, Lee, Hannah J, Lucas, Carolina, Silva Monteiro, Valter, Miric, Marija, Brache, Vivian, Cochon, Leila, Muenker, M Catherine, Mohanty, Subhasis, Huang, Jiefang, Kang, Insoo, Dela Cruz, Charles, Farhadian, Shelli, Campbell, Melissa, Yildirim, Inci, Shaw, Albert C, Ma, Shuangge, Vermund, Sten H, Ko, Albert I, Omer, Saad B, Iwasaki, Akiko
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccination on pregnancy and fertility has become a major topic of public interest. We investigated 2 of the most widely propagated claims to determine (1) whether COVID-19 mRNA vaccination of mice during early pregnancy is associated with an increased incidence of birth defects or growth abnormalities; and (2) whether COVID-19 mRNA-vaccinated human volunteers exhibit elevated levels of antibodies to the human placental protein syncytin-1. Using a mouse model, we found that intramuscular COVID-19 mRNA vaccination during early pregnancy at gestational age E7.5 did not lead to differences in fetal size by crown-rump length or weight at term, nor did we observe any gross birth defects. In contrast, injection of the TLR3 agonist and double-stranded RNA mimic polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid, or poly(I:C), impacted growth in utero leading to reduced fetal size. No overt maternal illness following either vaccination or poly(I:C) exposure was observed. We also found that term fetuses from these murine pregnancies vaccinated prior to the formation of the definitive placenta exhibit high circulating levels of anti-spike and anti-receptor-binding domain (anti-RBD) antibodies to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) consistent with maternal antibody status, indicating transplacental transfer in the later stages of pregnancy after early immunization. Finally, we did not detect increased levels of circulating anti-syncytin-1 antibodies in a cohort of COVID-19 vaccinated adults compared to unvaccinated adults by ELISA. Our findings contradict popular claims associating COVID-19 mRNA vaccination with infertility and adverse neonatal outcomes.
ISSN:1545-7885
1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.3001506