Regarding sex-based differences, females exhibited significantly higher caspase-1 (21.16 vs 3.16 pg/ml; p = 0.029) and pro-IL-1β levels (50.97 vs 32.9 pg/ml; p = 0.016) in response to influenza stimulation at baseline, whereas males secreted higher levels of pro-IL-1β (49.39 vs 24.9 pg/ml; p = 0.034) and IL-18 (3.06 vs 0.83 pg/ml; p = 0.0093) at Day 1 in response to stimulation with R848 or influenza, respectively. Here, IL1B is linked to influenza.