Preliminary Evidence of the Differential Expression of Human Endogenous Retroviruses in Kawasaki Disease and SARS-CoV-2-Associated Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children

Figures

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  Figure 1. The mRNA levels of the ENV gene of HERVs, HERV-related sequences, and their putative receptors in blood samples from paediatric patients with Kawasaki disease, COVID-19, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, and healthy controls. The expression levels of (A) the env gene of HERV-W and HERV-K, (B) syncytin-1 (Syn-1), alanine/serine/cysteine/threonine-preferring transporter 1 and 2 (ASCT-1, ASCT-2), and (C) syncytin-2 (Syn-2), and the major facilitator superfamily-domain-containing 2A (MFSD2A) were analysed by qRT-PCR in blood samples from children during the acute and subacute phase of Kawasaki disease (KDa and KDsa), multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-Ca and MIS-Csa), paediatric COVID-19 patients (COV) during the acute phase, and healthy controls (HCs). The results are represented as box plots depicting mild (black dot) and extreme outliers (asterisk) for each group. (D) The p-values for groupwise differences examined by the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test (statistical significance is defined when p < 0.050).

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  Figure 2. The mRNA levels of inflammatory and regulatory cytokines and interferon-gamma and Toll-like receptors in blood samples from paediatric patients with Kawasaki disease, COVID-19, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, and healthy controls. The mRNA levels of (A) inflammatory and regulatory cytokines: interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and IL-10, (B) tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interferon (INF-γ), and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), and (C) Toll-like receptors (TLR-3, TLR-4, and TLR-9) were analysed by qRT-PCR in blood samples from children during the acute and subacute phase of Kawasaki disease (KDa and KDsa), multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-Ca and MIS-Csa), paediatric COVID-19 patients (COV) during the acute phase, and healthy controls (HCs). The results are represented as box plots depicting mild (black dot) and extreme outliers (asterisk) for each group. (D) The p-values for groupwise differences examined by the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test (statistical significance is defined when p < 0.050).

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  Figure 3. Scatter plots of HERVs expression levels (X-axis) versus cytokines and CRP levels (Y-axis) in MIS-Ca and COV patients. Pairwise associations between continuous variables were tested through the Spearman correlation test. The Rho coefficients and p-values were reported.