IL6 and viral infectious disease: We observed increased level of inflammatory mediators (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, MIP-1α (CCL3), MIP-1β (CCL4), RANTES (CCL5), MCP-1 (CCL2)) following H5N3 virus infection at 4, 8 and 20 hpi compared to cells infected with the H1N1/WSN, H5N2 and H9N2 viruses (Fig. 4b).