Evaluation of humoral immunity following COVID-19 in Pregnancy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of cell-mediated and humoral immunity following COVID-19 in pregnancy (ImmunoCOVID
IRAS ID
283559
Contact name
Nishel Shah
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London, Head of Research Governance and Integrity
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 29 days
Research summary
The proposed study is designed to investigate if and how pregnant women infected with Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) infection go on to develop long-term immunity. In December 2019, a group of people in Wuhan, China presented with symptoms of a pneumonia of an unknown cause that led to the discovery of a new coronavirus called COVID-19. COVID-19 has caused a global pandemic with 7,140,000 confirmed cases and 418,000 deaths as of 13th June 2020. In the UK, there have been 294,000 cases and 41,662 deaths as of 13th June 2020. In humans, this infection primarily involves the upper part of the lungs, but it can also affect other organs. It causes mild symptoms in the majority of people affected but some people can have severe infections, with some even requiring critical care in hospital. During SARS, a previous coronavirus epidemic, pregnant women were disproportionately affected with severe illness. Understanding how the immune system responds long-term to this infection may hold the key to developing better vaccines and efficient treatment plans. Specialised immunity develops when individuals are infected by this and other viruses. We propose that, in pregnancy, this specialised immunity may not behave effectively. This may affect their ability to develop long lasting immunity and make them more vulnerable to re-infection. In this study, we aim to recruit patients across 6 groups including COVID-19 newly infected pregnant women, and people with differing illness severity, mild to moderate, severe/critical, no infection (controls), as well as pregnant women with influenza and those receiving influenza vaccine. We will compare COVID-19 in pregnancy with non-pregnant infected and with influenza infected and vaccinated pregnant women. We will consent patients in all of these groups to provide a series of blood samples at different time points in a 12-month period.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
20/WA/0200
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion