{
  "abstract": "Children were relatively protected from severe COVID-19 during the early pandemic a phenomenon linked to rapid and heightened innate immune responses in the upper-airways. Although adult upper-airway antiviral responses varied across successive SARS-CoV-2 waves, whether viral evolution similarly reshaped pediatric mucosal immunity remains unclear. Here we used single-cell transcriptomics to profile 229,533 upper-airway cells from 68 unvaccinated children including 17 uninfected controls, spanning the wild-type SARS-CoV-2, Alpha, Delta and Omicron waves. Epithelial interferon responses were primarily determined by time since symptom onset but were, unlike in adults, independent of disease severity. During early infection, anti-viral responses differed across variants without following a progressive pattern of attenuation. Alpha and Delta elicited the strongest interferon programs across epithelial and immune cell populations, whereas Omicron exhibited a shift towards macrophage cytokine signaling and T-cell cytotoxicity. These findings reveal variant-specific remodeling of pediatric upper-airway immunity that fundamentally differs from that described in adults.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Berlin Insitute of Health at Charité"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 16,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "S. McEwen"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Roehmel"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Wisniewski"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Loske"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Messingschlager"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Liebig"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. L. Chua"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Seegebarth"
    },
    {
      "name": "F. W. Ten"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Sawitzki"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. E. Sander"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. Conrad"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Eils"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. A. Mall"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "I. Lehmann"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Trump"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/029a7w6hdvds4.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.15.759133",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759133v1.full",
  "id": "029a7w6hdvds4",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759133v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "immunology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2725|SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7222805872",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759133v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/029a7w6hdvds4.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:28:17Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.15.759133",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759133v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:immunology",
      "subfield": "immunology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 reshapes upper airway immunity in children",
  "title_text": "Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 reshapes upper airway immunity in children",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:28:17Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/029a7w6hdvds4",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}