These included vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), IL-1RA, IL-6, TNF, IL-10, CCL2 (MCP-1), CXCL10 (IP-10), CCL3 (MIP-1α), CCL19 (MIP-3β), PD-L1, CSF3 (G-CSF) and granzyme B. In contrast, a strikingly different cytokine profile was observed in the nasopharynx; using the same significance cutoff (P < 0.05, q < 0.2, n = 42 samples), a limited and largely nonoverlapping set of seven cytokines was found to be significantly different between the healthy donors and patients with COVID-19 (Fig. 3c,d). This evidence concerns the gene GZMB and COVID-19.