Fig. 3: Abundance and functional alterations of serological proteomes in fibrosis regressors and non-regressors receiving AVT.

a, c Venn diagrams illustrate the specifically or commonly upregulated (↑) and downregulated (↓) DAPs between fibrosis regressors and non-regressors following short-term or long-term AVT. DAPs post-AVT were identified using a two-sided paired Student’s t-test or a two-sided Wilcoxon signed-rank test, in conjunction with a FC criterion. Proteins meeting both criteria (p-value < 0.05 and FC > 1.2) were defined as statistically significant. Short-term patients: n = 56 for R; n = 38 for NR. Long-term patients: n = 25 for R; n = 11 for NR. b, d Heatmaps depict the average abundance of DAPs in fibrosis regressors and non-regressors before and after AVT. The intensity of red indicates higher abundance, while darker shades of grey represent lower abundance. The AUC values, calculated based on the post/pre ratios of DAPs to differentiate fibrosis regressors from non-regressors, are visualized (Short-term patients: n = 56 for R; n = 38 for NR. Long-term patients: n = 25 for R; n = 11 for NR). Darker colors represent higher AUC values, and lighter colors correspond to lower AUC values. DAPs with AUC values å 0.7 are marked. DAP groups are color-coded. e, f Significantly enriched KEGG pathways of DAPs that were either unique to or shared between R and NR after short-term or long-term AVT. DAVID employs a modified Fisher’s exact test (one-sided) for KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, with Benjamini-Hochberg correction for multiple testing. An adj.p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. g Venn diagrams show the representative pathways that were specifically or commonly enriched (↓, decrease; ↑, increase) between fibrosis regressors and non-regressors in the short-term or long-term patient groups. Abbreviations: AUC area under the curve, DAP differentially abundant protein, Post post-treatment, Pre pre-treatment, Short-R regressor in the short-term group, Short-NR non-regressor in the short-term group, Long-R regressor in the long-term group, Long-NR non-regressor in the long-term group.