Figure 4.

Nasal epithelial cells from older individuals express significantly less mRNA for proteins important in antigen presentation and viral evasion. To confirm and extend our in vitro findings, immune gene profiles of nasal epithelial biopsies were performed using Nanostring nCounter assay (GX Human Immunology v2 kit). In older hosts (A, B) MHC-I (HLA-A and HLA-B), (C, D) TAP associated protein (TAP1, TAP2), (E) TAP Binding Protein (TAPBP), (F) ß2-microglobulin (B2M), (G, H, I) proteasome subunits PSMB8, 9, and 10, and (J, K) the antiviral IFITM1 and MX1, were reduced compared with nasal epithelial cells from young hosts in vivo. *p < .05 and **p < .01 compared with hNECs from young individuals as determined by t-test. n = 6 different donors for young and n = 5 donors for older adults.