72,98 In addition, the expression of the peptide hormone EREG and members from the ephrin family (EFNA1 and EFNA5) were also upregulated in COVID-19 samples.72,98 Epiregulin (EREG) has been shown to sensitize nociceptors through epidermal growth factor family receptors,54 whereas ephrins are known to contribute to neuronal modulation.27 Similar to the bulk RNA-seq, our secondary analysis of single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data sets also found significantly upregulated expression of proinflammatory mediators capable of interacting with hDRG neurons. This evidence concerns the gene EREG and COVID-19.