Altogether, eight biomarkers stood out as the main inflammatory mediators with discriminative potential between the COVID-19 (recovered/long-COVID-19) and healthy unexposed groups: IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-6, IL-2, IP-10, TNF, IL- 1β, and IL-8 (Fig 5A and S1 Fig). Here, IL6 is linked to COVID-19.