Figure 2. SARS-CoV-2 viral load and expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors in the nasal mucosa does not correlate with age.

We compared the nasal transcriptome of 36 children with SARS-CoV-2 infection with 7 healthy children, 24 children with RSV infection, 9 children with IV infection, 16 adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 13 healthy adults. A. Detection of viral reads for SARS-CoV-2, influenza A/California/07/2009, and RSV/S2 ts1C in RNA-seq data for all participant samples (n=105). Heatmap of viral genes for SARS-CoV-2, IV, and RSV. Log-transformed pseudocounts (CPM+1) are shown. B. Normalized reads were averaged for all 11 SARS-CoV-2 viral genes. Average SARS-CoV-2 reads did not differ between children (yellow, circle) and adults (purple, triangle). Log-transformed pseudocounts (CPM+1) are shown. C. Averaged SARS-CoV-2 viral reads did not correlate with ACE2 expression. Log-transformed pseudocounts (CPM+1) are shown. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and p-value are shown. D. Normalized expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 was similar across all participant groups; differences not significant, Kruskal-Wallis testing with Benjamini-Hochberg FDR correction, all adjusted p-values >0.05. Log-transformed pseudocounts (CPM+1) are shown. E. ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression did not correlate with age. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and p-value are shown. Log-transformed pseudocounts (CPM+1) are shown.