Fig. 5: Dysregulation of the plasma proteome associated with breathlessness in healthy convalescent individuals and individuals with long COVID recruited from the United Kingdom.
From: Identification of soluble biomarkers that associate with distinct manifestations of long COVID
a, PCA of plasma protein concentrations colored by donor group for healthy convalescent individuals (n = 51) and individuals with long COVID (n = 51). b, Bar plots showing the corresponding numbers of differentially upregulated plasma proteins from each panel. Significance was evaluated using a two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test with (red) or without (gray) Benjamini–Hochberg correction. c, Stacked histogram showing the distribution of breathlessness scores for healthy convalescent individuals (n = 34) and individuals with long COVID (n = 48). d, PCA of plasma protein concentrations colored by breathlessness score tiers for healthy convalescent individuals (n = 51) and individuals with long COVID (n = 51), irrespective of clinical assignation. e, Volcano plots showing the corresponding differentially expressed plasma proteins from each panel versus the highest and lowest breathlessness score tiers, irrespective of clinical assignation. Significance was evaluated using a two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test with (red) or without (gray) Benjamini–Hochberg correction. The dashed line indicates P = 0.05. f, Correlation dot plots showing the highest (n = 6) and lowest ranked plasma proteins (n = 4) in terms of normalized expression versus breathlessness scores for healthy convalescent individuals (n = 51) and individuals with long COVID (n = 51), irrespective of clinical assignation; IDI2, isopentenyl-diphosphate δ-isomerase-2; SPRR3, small proline-rich protein 3; ENPP5, ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase family member 5; OMP, olfactory marker protein. Significance was evaluated using the two-tailed Pearson coefficient. Shading indicates the 95% confidence interval for each regression line.
