TNF and leprosy: Our multivariate model showed that COVID-19 was related to increased expression levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12B, and IL-10 (P < 0.05) (Table 1), and that leprosy simultaneously enhanced the levels of IL-6 (P = 0.046) and IL-12B (P = 0.020) (Figure 1).