COVID-19 driven reprogramming of platelets leads to
drastically altered expression of genes associated with platelet adhesion,
activation, coagulation and thrombosis
(A and B) Uniform Manifold Approximation and
Projections (UMAPs) show distributions of sub-clusters (A) and COVID-19
conditions (B) of platelets after the integration of PBMC
datasets.
(C) Severity-associated coagulation genes were
selected and shown on the heatmap, with disease and sub-cluster specific gene
patterns identified and labeled. Their functional associations with coagulation
pathways were retrieved from ToppGene and shown on the right.
(D) Functional and phenotypical associations of
coagulation-association genes in each gene pattern from (C). Associations were
retrieved from ToppGene enrichment output and eight enrichment categories are
represented by rectangles with unique colors. Thicken colored edges represent
associations of highlighted functions, such as cell-matrix binding and
regulation of coagulation. Hypothesized pathway cascade that potentially drives
thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients is drawn in red dotted line. See also
Figures S12, S13
and Table
S4.