IL1B and COVID-19: Therefore, we investigated the expression of a pro-inflammatory cytokine signature (TNF, IL1B, IL6, CCL2, IFNA17, IFNB1, CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11) in lung samples from lethal COVID-19, which contains genes that are upregulated in plasma and/or BAL of severe COVID-19 patients4, 12, and type I interferons, which are deregulated in COVID-198.