Extended Data Fig. 5: Activation of the STING signaling pathway in lung dendritic cells following immunization with the two-component intranasal vaccine.
a, The t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) analysis revealed distinct annotated cell clusters derived from scRNA-seq data obtained from lung tissues of wild-type mice treated with PBS and those administered Ad5XBB.1.5 + RBDXBB.1.5-HR, along with Sting−/− mice receiving the same treatment (Three mice were merged in one group). b, A heatmap depicting canonical cell-type markers was generated to identify distinct cell populations. c, The expression profile of the Tmem173 gene across various cell populations was illustrated. d, Quantitative analysis of Tmem173 gene expression was performed in each subcellular population. e, The expression of the Tmem173 gene in CCR7+ DC, DC1, and plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) populations from wild-type mice treated with PBS or Ad5XBB.1.5 + RBDXBB.1.5-HR, and Sting−/− mice receiving Ad5XBB.1.5 + RBDXBB.1.5-HR. f, Expression levels of genes (Adar, Ccl5, Ddx41, Ifi203, Ifit1, Irf7, Irf9, Isg15, Oas1a, and Trim21) associated with STING signaling pathway activation in each group. g, The expression of genes related to antigen processing and presentation in lung dendritic cells. h, The phagocytosis of FITC fluorescence-conjugated RBDXBB.1.5-HR proteins by DCs in the absence or presence of Ad5Empty or Ad5XBB.1.5. i, The scoring of plasma cell induction and B cell activation in lung tissues was based on scRNA-seq data analysis. The expression levels of the genes in e–f were analyzed across three dendritic cell subsets (CCR7⁺ DCs, DC1, and pDCs) in different sample groups. Bar plots represent the mean expression levels across biological replicates (three mice were merged in one group), with error bars indicating the SEM. P values in e-f were assessed using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
