Fig. 1: Transcriptional profiles within the upper respiratory tract and peripheral blood of healthy children, adolescents, and adults.
From: Age-associated differences in mucosal and systemic host responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection
Bulk RNA sequencing was used to compare the transcriptional profiles of healthy young children (0–5 years), school-age children (6–13 years), adolescents (14–20 years), and adults (≥21 years, peripheral blood samples only). a, b Box and whisker plots depict proportions of transcripts attributed to different immune cell populations in the upper respiratory tract and peripheral blood of healthy children and adolescents, with cell proportions imputed using CIBERSORT. Note that the proportions of cell types predicted by CIBERSORT do not reflect their absolute proportions within a given sample type. Lines splitting the boxes correspond to median values while box edges represent the 25th and 75th percentiles with outliers shown as single points. Proportions of immune cell populations were compared by age (modeled as a continuous variable) using beta regression, with all analyses corrected for multiple comparisons (*, padj < 0.05; **, padj < 0.01; ***, padj < 0.001; ****, padj < 0.0001). Only immune cell populations identified in at least 25% of samples are shown. Differential expression of gene modules in upper respiratory and peripheral blood samples from pediatric age groups (c) and in peripheral blood samples from children and adolescents compared to adults (d). Below each column, the age group listed first represents the group of interest while the age group listed second is the reference group. Numbers within each circle indicate the normalized enrichment score (NES) calculated through gene set enrichment analysis. Colored circles indicate differential expression (padj < 0.05) of immune modules across the comparison groups (red, upregulation in the age group of interest; blue, downregulation in the age group of interest). Gene set enrichment analyses were adjusted for sex, sequencing batch, and imputed sample immune cell proportions (peripheral blood only). Source data are provided as a Source Data file. (TNF tumor necrosis factor, NK natural killer, Treg, and regulatory T).
