Fig. 4. Distinct neutrophil status and “cytokine paradox” within asymptomatic and critically ill COVID-19 patients.

a Heatmap of mRNA abundance for genes in neutrophil activation pathway in asymptomatic (n = 64), mild (n = 64), severe (n = 34), and critical (n = 16) COVID-19 patients. b Heatmap of protein abundance in neutrophil activation pathway in asymptomatic (n = 53), mild (n = 54), severe (n = 33), and critical (n = 21) COVID-19 patients. c Dynamic changes in representative genes showing discordance between protein and mRNA expression. mRNA and protein abundance were scaled by median expression. d Protein-protein interaction network (PPIN) of genes showing discrepancy pattern in mRNA and protein abundance. e Variation patterns of gene expression of inflammatory cytokines across four disease severity. f Quantification of IL-6 (pg/mL), IL-8 (pg/mL), IL-10 (pg/mL), and IL-2R (U/L) in each group. We performed comparisons between arbitrary two groups. P values were calculated using Wilcoxon signed-rank test (two-sided) and significant P values were shown in boxplot. g Heatmap showing mRNA abundance of RBPs across four disease severity groups. h Heatmap showing miRNA abundance across four disease severity groups. The bold lines, upper boundaries and lower boundaries of notches represent the medians, 75th percentiles and 25th percentiles, respectively. Whiskers extend 1.5 times interquartile range (IQR). * means adjusted P value ≤ 0.05, ** means adjusted P value ≤ 0.01, *** means adjusted P value ≤ 0.001 and **** means P ≤ 0.0001, if not indicated, means adjusted P value > 0.05. Multiple comparisons adjustment was performed using Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) method. Exact P value and source data were included in the Source Data file.