Fig. 3: Reduced MHC class II on antigen-presenting cells marks critical COVID-19. | Nature Communications

Fig. 3: Reduced MHC class II on antigen-presenting cells marks critical COVID-19.

From: Monocyte-driven atypical cytokine storm and aberrant neutrophil activation as key mediators of COVID-19 disease severity

Fig. 3

a Heatmap of differential monocyte clusters between healthy (n = 8), mild-moderate (n = 32) and critical (n = 14) COVID-19 groups based on mass cytometry measurements on whole blood. Rows indicate monocyte subclusters. Columns indicate patient groups (left) and cell surface markers (right). A two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test with Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple group comparisons was used. b HLA-DR expression on CD14hi monocytes in healthy (HC, n = 6; mean 95,72%), mild-moderate (CMM, n = 21; mean 84,14%) and critical (CCC, n = 20; mean 70,97%) groups based on flow cytometric analyses of PBMCs. Boxplot representation (centre line, mean; box limits, upper and lower quartiles; whiskers, range; points, data points per patient). A two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test with Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple group comparisons was used; p = 0.0014 HC vs CCC, p = 0.046 CMM vs CCC. c Gene set enrichment analysis of HLA-DR complex coding genes in professional antigen-presenting cells, comparing scRNA-seq data from mild-moderate (n = 13) and critical (n = 10) COVID-19 cases. Boxplot representation (centre line, mean; box limits, upper and lower quartiles; whiskers, range; points, data points per patient). A two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used, p = 0.0303 for dendritic cells (DC). d Expression of HLA-DR on myeloid DC based on mass cytometry measurements (mild-moderate n = 32, critical n = 14). Boxplot representation (centre line, mean; box limits, upper and lower quartiles; whiskers, range; points, data points per patient). A two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used, p = 0.0098. e Heatmap of genes coding for co-stimulatory molecules involved in MHC class II-restricted antigen presentation by dendritic cells, comparing mild-moderate versus critical COVID-19. Individual dots in boxplots represent data points per patient. Source data are provided as a Source data file. Statistical significance is shown as *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

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