Figure 2.

Upper respiratory tract IFI27 gene expression in COVID-19. (A) IFI27 expression in primary human nasal epithelial cells at 72 hours post-SARS-CoV-2 (QLD/02) or Mock infection. (B) IFI27 gene expression in nasopharyngeal samples in Cohort 2 (n=137). SARS-CoV-2 virus load (as measured by Ct values) is used as a proxy of local disease activity. A statistically non-significant p-value of the linear regression model (represented by R²) indicates that there is no association between IFI27 expression and viral RNA in the upper respiratory tract. (C) IFI27 gene expression in nasopharyngeal samples in Cohort 3 (n=60). ‘Mild’ disease is defined as the presence of COVID-19 disease in a patient who does not require hospitalization. ‘Moderate’ disease is defined as the presence of COVID-19 disease in a patient who requires hospitalization. ‘Severe’ disease is defined as the presence of COVID-19 disease in a patient who requires mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit. p value is calculated using Mann-Whitney U test. **p < 0.01; ns, not significant. Data shows mean ± SEM. IFI27 gene expression is measured by qPCR normalized to house-keeping genes.