MMP8 and COVID-19: Further overlapping of ALI-associated nodal genes with gene expression profiling data from ARDS induced by COVID-19 in patients [82] revealed a range of common genes differentially expressed in both the acute (ALI, mice) and the late (COVID-19, postmortem, human) phases of lung injury (CCL2, RTP4, MMP8, IFI44, RSAD2, CYP1A1, FYB1, LCN2), which demonstrates their probable key regulatory role in the progression of ALI (Fig 5A).