NCT04962477

Understanding Host-pathogen Interaction in the Respiratory Mucosa During Pregnancy

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 48 (actual)
• Sponsor: Washington University School of Medicine · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 45 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The clinical presentation of the ongoing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic in pregnant women is unique with more asymptomatic infection, higher morbidity when symptomatic, yet without a difference in mortality rate. This is strikingly different from the high mortality observed during the past influenza A pandemics. Though both influenza A virus (IAV) and SARS-CoV-2 are single-stranded RNA viruses, the exquisite vulnerability of pregnant women to influenza A but not COVID-19 remains a mystery. Our objective, therefore, is to determine the mechanisms that predispose pregnant women to severe influenza A but confer protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection by examining the viral entry factors and innate immune response mechanisms in the nasal epithelium of pregnant vs. non-pregnant age-matched women.

Conditions

• Pregnancy Related
• Innate Inflammatory Response

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Nasal brush sampling	Nasal brush samples will be collected from the inferior turbinate using standardized techniques after local anesthetic application. After clearing the mucus from the nasal cavity by asking the patient to blow their nostrils twice followed by local anesthetic spray application, nasal brush samples will be collected from the inferior turbinate of each nostril with dedicated soft cytology brushes and pooled together for molecular biological experiments. Simultaneously, 10 mL of peripheral blood will be collected for immunophenotyping.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-03-02
• Primary completion: 2023-09-27
• Completion: 2023-09-27
• First posted: 2021-07-15
• Last updated: 2025-12-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States