Fig. 4: Relationship of SARS-CoV-2 viral load to ISG and B cell marker gene expression in children and adults.

a Scatter plot of the slopes from robust regression of the expression of 100 interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) against viral load in adults (n = 45; x-axis) and children (n = 38; y-axis) with SARS-CoV-2 infection. b Scatter plot of the adjusted coefficients of determination (R²) from robust regression of the expression of 100 ISGs against viral load in adults (n = 45; x-axis) and children (n = 38; y-axis). c Scatter plots of normalized gene counts (log₂ scale, y-axis) as a function of SARS-CoV-2 viral load (log₁₀(rpM), x-axis) in each age cohort for canonical type I interferon response genes showing high correlation to viral load in adults and children. The viral status group is indicated by the dot color. Robust regression was performed on SARS-CoV-2 patients to characterize the relationship to viral load in each age cohort (n = 45 adults, n = 38 children). Shaded bands represent 95% confidence intervals around the mean predicted value. Numerical results listed for each gene refer to, from top to bottom: the regression slope, the nominal p-value for the difference of the slope from 0 (derived from a t-statistic), and the adjusted robust coefficient of determination (R²). d Plots as in c, for ISGs showing a more gradual response to viral load in children. e Plots as in c, for B cell marker genes.