Fig. 2

Hyper-expression of immune response genes including cytokines in KR-Patients. A Venn diagram shows the number of all up-regulated genes (adj p-value < 0.05) between KR-patients and RG-patients. B Violin plot shows log2 fold-change values of all significantly (adj p-value < 0.05) up-regulated genes in KR-patients. DE genes are highly up-regulated in KR-patients compared to RG-patients. p-values were calculated using unpaired two-tailed t-test, ****P =  < 0.0001. C Dot plot showing GO-enrichment analysis (top 30 GO-Biological Processes BP enriched pathways are shown) for significantly up-regulated genes in KR-patients (adj p-value < 0.05 and log2 fold-change ≥ 2). The FDR is based on nominal p-value from the hypergeometric test. Fold Enrichment corresponds to the percentage of genes in the pathway list, divided by the corresponding percentage in the background. GO term analysis was performed by ShinyGO (version 0.074). D Heatmap of significantly differentially expressed cytokine-related genes. KR-Patients (n = 39), RG-Patients (n = 39), and Healthy controls (n = 34). The sample names show COVID-19 disease status (Severe = ICU/Deceased, Mild = Not admitted to ICU, and Healthy)