FIGURE 3.

S‐specific CD4+ and CD8+ T‐cell response is associated with disease severity in acute SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. (A) Bar graphs show S‐specific CD4+ T‐cell response, considering the sum of IFN‐γ, TNF‐α and IL‐2 production, in the different CD4+ T‐cell subsets, in mild and severe acute patients’ groups. (B) S‐specific CD4+ T‐cell response considering the levels of cells producing IFN‐γ. (C) S‐specific CM CD4+ T‐cell levels of combinations only including IFN‐γ+ cells for five (IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐2, CD107a and PRF) functions. (D) S‐specific CD4+ T‐cell levels in the different T‐cell subsets of combinations including IL‐2+ and TNF‐α+ cells for five (IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐2, CD107a and PRF) functions. (E) S‐specific MEM CD4 T‐cell polyfunctionality pie charts. Each sector represents the proportion of S‐specific CD4 T‐cells producing two (blue) and one (yellow) function. Arc represents the type of function (IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐2, CD107a and PRF) expressed in each sector. Permutation test, following the Spice version 6.0 software was used to assess differences between pie charts. (F) Polyfunctional index bar graph of S‐specific MEM CD4+ polyfunctionality, for five functions. (G) Bar graphs show S‐specific CD8+ T‐cell response, considering the sum of IFN‐γ, TNF‐α and IL‐2 production, in the different CD8+ T‐cell subsets, in mild and severe acute patients’ groups, (H) S‐specific CD8+ T‐cell response considering the levels of cells producing IL‐2 and (I) S‐specific CD8+ T‐cell levels of combinations only including IL‐2+ cells for five (IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐2, CD107a and PRF) functions. The medians with the interquartile ranges are shown. Each dot represents a patient. ROUT method was utilised to identify and discard outliers. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. Mann–Whitney U test was used for groups’ comparisons. (Mild, n = 18; severe, n = 19)