Fig. 3: Differences in immunological plasma proteins (942 proteins; SomaScan Inflammation and Immune Response Panel) associated with infections in the BLSA.

a–f, Volcano plots showing the differences in protein levels associated with influenza (a), HHVs (b), miscellaneous viral infections (c), URTIs (d), LRTIs, (e) and skin and subcutaneous infections (f). Adjusted differences in log₂(protein levels) associated with history of a given infection (β) were derived from multiple linear regression models (n = 1,184) adjusted for age, sex, race, education, APOEε4, eGFR-creatinine, and a comorbidity index (that is, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, ischemic heart disease, chronic heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Proteins above the dashed horizontal black line were statistically significant (uncorrected P < 0.05), with red and blue dots indicating positive and negative associations, respectively. The FDR-corrected P-value threshold is indicated by the dashed gray line. Red and blue labels represent proteins associated with two or more infections, whereas black labels indicate proteins uniquely associated with a given infection. g, A clustered bar graph showing proteins associated with two or more infections. Adjusted differences in log₂(protein levels) associated with history of a given infection were derived from multiple linear regression models adjusted for the aforementioned covariates. The (+) and (−) indicate that higher or lower protein levels were associated with a given infection. Statistical significance was defined at two-sided P < 0.05 without adjustment for multiple comparisons. The exact P values are presented in the source data files of Supplementary Table 13.