The HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1α) signaling pathway, which plays an important role in virus infection and proinflammatory responses (Tian et al., 2021; Serebrovska et al., 2020), was significantly enriched in gene expression profiles of Virofree treatment (Figure 1B), suggesting effects of the drug on this pathway to suppress IL-6 production, which is consistent with PCA loading scores (Figure 1F), and eventually inhibit the cytokine storm. Here, IL6 is linked to viral infectious disease.