Insufficiency in airway interferon activation defines clinical severity to infant RSV infection

Chin-Yi Chu; Xing Qiu; Matthew N. McCall; Lu Wang; Anthony Corbett; Jeanne Holden-Wiltse; Christopher Slaunwhite; Qian Wang; Christopher Anderson; Alex Grier; Steven R. Gill; Gloria S. Pryhuber; Ann R. Falsey; David J. Topham; Mary T. Caserta; Edward E. Walsh; Thomas J Mariani

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. . https://doi.org/10.1101/641795 doi: bioRxiv preprint many variables were not associated with substantial differences in gene expression after appropriate adjustments for multiple testing ( Table 2) . As previously reported 35 , the presence of known bacterial pathogens had a large impact on airway gene expression (n=470 genes), appearing to be driven more by the presence of S. pneumoniae (n=691 genes) than Moraxella or H. influenzae when identified by standard RT-PCR microbiologic diagnostic assays (TAC cards, as described above). Notably, the time elapsed from the onset of clinical symptoms (time) also had a major impact on gene expression (n=216 genes). Interestingly, the presence of an additional pathogen during acute infection, in the aggregate, was not significantly associated with clinical severity (P>0.319) ( Table 1) .