Fig. 6: Shared signatures of plasma proteome dysregulation associated with respiratory symptoms in healthy convalescent individuals and individuals with long COVID.
From: Identification of soluble biomarkers that associate with distinct manifestations of long COVID
a, Bar plot showing the distribution of Borg CR10 scores for individuals in the secondary cohort with long COVID (n = 95). b, Volcano plots showing differentially expressed plasma proteins from each panel versus Borg CR10 score tiers for individuals in the secondary cohort with long COVID (n = 95). Significance was evaluated using a two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test. The dashed line indicates P = 0.05. No proteins achieved adjusted P < 0.05 after Benjamini–Hochberg correction. c, GSEA showing differentially expressed plasma proteins by rank versus the Borg CR10 score tiers for individuals with long COVID (n = 95), irrespective of clinical assignation. The top five terms from the Hallmark (H) and Pathway Interaction Database (PID) gene sets (Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB) Collections) are shown. Significance was evaluated using the GSEA method without correction; NES, normalized enrichment score. d, Scatter dot plot showing individual plasma protein fold change across breathlessness score tiers (primary cohort, x axis) and Borg CR10 score tiers (secondary cohort, y axis). Significance was evaluated using a two-tailed Spearman rank test. Proteins are colored according to significance without Benjamini–Hochberg correction. e, Network analysis showing differentially expressed plasma proteins from the inflammation panel across both cohorts depicted using Cytoscape. Nodes and edges represent proteins and functional relevance, respectively. Edge thickness represents the level of confidence. f, Overrepresentation analysis of significantly upregulated plasma proteins across both cohorts showing the five top terms from the Hallmark Collection and the Pathway Interaction Database. Significance was evaluated using a hypergeometric test. g, Comparison of plasma protein concentrations between cohorts split by symptom severity. Horizontal bars represent median values. Significance was evaluated using a two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test; NPX, normalized protein expression; AIFM1, apoptosis-inducing factor mitochondria-associated 1; CASP, caspase.
