Fig. 6

Changes in TCR Signalling, Inflammatory Cytokine Expression, and IGHM Gene Expression in Long COVID Patients Pre- and Post-EAT. (a) Comparison of T-cell receptor (TCR) signalling kinase and TCR subunit expression levels in cluster 1 between the long COVID pre-EAT group and the post-EAT group. The panels show violin plots depicting the scores calculated on the basis of the expression levels of TCR signalling kinases and TCR subunits from the network map of SARS-CoV-2. Red represents long COVID pre-EAT and blue represents long COVID post-EAT. ***p < 0.001. ****p < 0.0001. (b) Spatial gene expression analysis was used to map the expression levels of the IL-6 and TNF genes onto the epipharyngeal tissue in both pre-EAT and post-EAT samples, highlighting the spatial distribution of these inflammatory markers. Scale bar, 1 mm. (c) These panels depict the mRNA expression patterns of IL-6 and TNF-α in the subepithelial region of the epipharyngeal tissues from patients with long COVID as determined by in situ hybridization. Each row represents a different patient (Patients 1 to 3), with the left and right panels showing IL-6 and TNF-α expression, respectively. The top row of images shows the expression pre-EAT, whereas the bottom row shows the expression post-EAT. The brown dots represent IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA. Scale bar, 25 μm. (d) Spatial gene expression analysis maps the expression levels of IGHM genes onto the epipharyngeal tissue in both pre-EAT and post-EAT samples, highlighting the spatial distribution of IGHM. Scale bar, 1 mm.