STAT3 and Zika virus infectious disease: Indeed, ZIKV infection under conditions of antibody-mediated sequestration of IL-6, which was released from the cells into the culture supernatant, resulted in ∼3-fold-enhanced STAT1 phosphorylation (Fig. 5H, top blot), whereas STAT3 phosphorylation (Fig. 5H) and SOCS3 expression (Fig. 5I) were significantly reduced.