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 ).