FIGURE 3.

Proteins linked to sACE2 at baseline and follow-up and its changes at 6 mo in the diet intervention. The heat map presents the biomarkers that were important in PLS analysis (VIP >1.5) and/or XGBoost modeling (feature importance >0.010) for predicting the cross-sectional sACE2 and the 6-mo change (Δ) in sACE2. For PLS, red dots are positive and blue dots are negative correlation coefficients. Proteins selected for baseline sACE2, follow-up sACE2, and ΔsACE2 are in bold. Models for ΔsACE2 accounted for sACE2 at baseline. Larger dots reflect greater VIP score (for PLS) or greater feature importance (for XGBoost). AMBP, α-1-microglobulin/bikunin precursor; APN, aminopeptidase N; CCL3, C-C motif chemokine ligand 3; CDCP1, CUB domain containing protein 1; DCN, decorin; DNER, Δ and notch-like epidermal growth factor-related receptor; FABP2, fatty acid-binding protein 2; HAOX1, hydroxyacid oxidase 1; HGF, hepatocyte growth factor; hOSCAR, human osteoclast-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor; HO1, heme oxygenase 1; IGFBP, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein; IL1-RT2, interleukin 1 receptor type II; KIM-1, kidney injury molecule 1; MB, myoglobin; MERTK, tyrosine-protein kinase Mer; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase; PGF, placental growth factor; PLS, partial least squares; PRSS8, prostasin; PSGL1, P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1; sACE2, soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; SCF, stem cell factor; ST-2, soluble interleukin-1 receptor-like 1; TIMP4, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 4; TNFRSF9, TNF receptor superfamily member 9; TPA, tissue-type plasminogen activator; TRAIL-R2, TNF receptor superfamily member 10B; TRAP, thrombospondin-related anonymous protein; TWEAK, TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis; VIP, variable importance in projection; XGBoost, eXtreme Gradient Boosting.