Expression of ACE2, TMPRSS2 and FURIN in molecular phenotypes
We compared the expression of these three genes in sputum amongst the
three previously-identified TACs (Fig 4 )(15). As previously
reported, the analysis of sputum transcriptomics in the U-BIOPRED cohort
produced three molecular endotypes of asthma (15). ACE2 expression
levels were significantly higher in TAC2 (an endotype characterized by
sputum neutrophilic inflammation and inflammasome activation signature)
and TAC1 (eosinophilic inflammation with an IL-13/T2-high pathway) than
in TAC3 (pauci-granulocytic inflammation with oxidative phosphorylation
pathway) (Fig 4A ). FURIN levels were significantly higher in
TAC2 than in TAC1 and TAC3 (Fig 4C ). TMPRSS2 levels did not
differ across TACs (Fig 4B ).