Covid-19 morbidity and mortality are associated with a dysregulated immune response. Tools are needed to enhance existing immune profiling capabilities in affected patients. Here we aimed to develop an approach to support the design of focused blood transcriptome panels for profiling the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We designed a pool of candidates based on a pre-existing and well-characterized repertoire of blood transcriptional modules. Available Covid-19 blood transcriptome data was also used to guide this process. Further selection steps relied on expert curation. Additionally, we developed several custom web applications to support the evaluation of candidates. As a proof of principle, we designed three targeted blood transcript panels, each with a different translational connotation: therapeutic development relevance, SARS biology relevance and immunological relevance. Altogether the work presented here may contribute to the future expansion of immune profiling capabilities via targeted profiling of blood transcript abundance in Covid-19 patients.

中文翻译：

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用于开发靶向Covid-19血液转录谱分析面板的模块化框架

Covid-19的发病率和死亡率与免疫反应失调有关。需要工具来增强受影响患者中现有的免疫谱分析能力。在这里，我们旨在开发一种方法来支持设计聚焦血液转录组面板，以分析对SARS-CoV-2感染的免疫反应。我们基于已有的，特征明确的血液转录模块库设计了一个候选库。可用的Covid-19血液转录组数据也用于指导这一过程。进一步的选择步骤取决于专家的管理。此外，我们开发了一些自定义Web应用程序以支持对候选人的评估。作为原理上的证明，我们设计了三个针对性的血液转录本面板，每个面板都有不同的翻译含义：治疗发展相关性，SARS生物学相关性和免疫学相关性。通过Covid-19患者的血液转录本丰度的靶向分析，本文介绍的工作可能会有助于将来扩展免疫分析功能。