Figure 3.
A distinct proteome is present in the post-COVID-19 airway
436 proteins in BAL and plasma were measured using Olink immunoassays in post-COVID-19 patients (n = 19) and healthy controls (n = 9).
(A) Principal component analysis (PCA) of BAL and plasma proteomes: each point represents a sample.
(B) Left: heatmap displaying Z score normalized protein abundance for the 22 proteins that were significantly differentially abundant (5% FDR) between post-COVID-19 and healthy controls in BAL. Samples have been ordered by case control status and then by peak severity during acute COVID-19 infection. Proteins are ordered by hierarchical clustering. Right: heatmap for these same 22 proteins in plasma, presented in the same order as for BAL.
(C) Volcano plot showing differentially protein abundance analysis between post-COVID-19 patients and healthy controls in BAL. Nominal −log10 p values are shown. Significantly differentially abundant proteins (5% FDR) are colored in red and labeled.
(D) BAL and plasma normalized protein abundance (NPX) expression for the 5 most significantly differentially abundance proteins between post-COVID-19 patients and healthy controls. PBH, Benjamini-Hochberg adjusted p values.
(E) Correlation between the 22 differentially abundant proteins (from the analysis of post-COVID-19 versus HC) and immune cell frequency in BAL. See also Figures S2–S5.