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Article History

Received: 6 October 2025

Revised: 5 March 2026

Accepted: 20 March 2026

First Online: 8 April 2026

Competing interests

: This work was funded by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación grants PID2019-107551RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and PID2022-137014OB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ FEDER, UE to V.G.Y and PID2023-146982OB-I00, CEX2020-001039-S and PID2024-159895OB-100 to A.S, IMDEA Nanociencia and M.L, respectively. The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) and the Pro CNIC Foundation), and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (grant CEX2020-001041-S funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).

: The authors confirm that all methods were performed in accordance with the relevant institutional guidelines and regulations. Tonsil samples included in this study were provided by the Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (HUPHM)/Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Puerta de Hierro-Segovia de Arana (IDIPHISA) Biobank (Carlos III Health Institute Biobanks and Biomodels Platform) and were processed following standard operating procedures with the appropriate approval of the Ethics and Scientific Committees (AC0123-A-2023). Informed consent was obtained from all subjects. No identifiable images are included in this study. Animal procedures were conducted in accordance with EU Directive 2010/63/EU and Recommendation 2007/526/EC on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, as implemented in Spanish law under Royal Decree 53/2013. All protocols were reviewed by the CNIC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and approved by the Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Administración Local y Ordenación del Territorio of the Comunidad de Madrid (PROEX 326.5/21).