IL6 and COVID-19: Supplementary Table 4 shows the serum levels of these biomarkers in the healthy controls and COVID-19 patients. Compared to the healthy controls, the COVID-19 patients had significantly higher IL-18, TNF-α, and VEGF levels, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 infection may activate NLRP3 inflammasome-related inflammation. However, when comparing the critical and non-critical COVID-19 groups, there was no significant difference in serum IL-18, TNF-α, or VEGF levels, and only serum IL-6 levels were significantly elevated in the critical group compared to the non-critical group (Table 2).