Fig. 1.

Decreases in the percentage of CD56^brightCD16⁻ and CD56^dimCD16⁺ NK cells during the acute phase of SFTSV infection in humans A Definitions of CD56^brightCD16⁻ (i), CD56^brightCD16⁺ (ii), CD56^dimCD16⁻ (iii), CD56^dimCD16⁺ (iv) and CD56⁻CD16⁺ (v) NK cells by flow cytometry from one representative participant. B Mean frequency of NK cells of total PBMCs from the healthy controls (n = 15) and the patients with mild (n = 15) and severe (n = 14) SFTS upon admission (left panels of B) and at different time intervals during their entire hospital stay (right panels of B). The dashed line represents the median of the healthy controls. C and D Mean frequency of NK cell subsets out of total PBMCs from the healthy controls (n = 15) and the patients with mild (n = 15) and severe (n = 14) SFTS upon admission (C) and at different time intervals during their entire hospital stay (D). The dashed line represents the median of the healthy controls. Data are shown as the median ± 95% CI. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann–Whitney U test. The level of significance is indicated as follows: ns, not significant; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001