IL18 and infection: Of note, IL18 is upregulated at the onset of infection (dpi 1, 4), which is corresponding to that IL-18 is increased upon fever onset and remains highly elevated in the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients (Rodrigues et al., 2020a; Tao et al., 2020b; Flament et al., 2021; Ashrafzadeh-Kian et al., 2022).