Fig. 4: Association of HIV infection-related protein modules with 90-day post-discharge growth and hub proteins identification.

Analysis included 217 children of whom 38 had HIV infection. A–D Forest plots showing association of HIV-related protein modules at discharge with 90-day post-discharge MUAC, WAZ, WHZ, and HAZ. Estimates on the x-axis represent the beta-coefficients of this association. Points (centre of the bars) indicate beta coefficient estimates for every unit increase in plasma protein concentration in a given module while error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. Red colour indicates estimate of modules significantly associated with 90-day post-discharge anthropometric measurements. E–T Scatter plots illustrating the correlation between absolute effect sizes of protein-growth significance and intra-modular connectivity as shown by the blue regression line. The association coefficient, R, and significance of association, P, are indicated accordingly. The error bands represent the 95% confidence interval for the regression line. Red dots on the plots represent hub proteins in each module. Box plots show the expression levels of hub proteins by HIV status (children with HIV, n = 38; children without HIV, n = 79). Data are presented as median values with interquartile range (IQR). A two-sided t-test was used to compare expression levels of hub proteins between children with and without HIV, denoted by red and blue colours, respectively. P values were adjusted for multiple testing using the Bonferroni correction criterion. Box plots indicate; median (middle line); 25th (first quartile, Q1) and 75th (third quartile, Q3) percentile (box limits); error bars (whiskers) represent 1.5*Q1 and Q3 while single points outside the error bars represent outliers. Abbreviations: MUAC mid-upper arm circumference, WAZ weight-for-age z score, WHZ weight-for-height z score, HAZ height-for-age z score, PM protein module, ∣β-coefficient∣ absolute beta coefficient estimate of a relationship between proteins in a module and 90-day anthropometric measurements, R correlation coefficient, p p-value where p < 0.05 was considered significant.