Notably, the GO analysis performed on DEGs between patients with persistent olfactory symptoms (Group 1) and patients who never experienced these symptoms (Group 3) after the infection revealed a statistically significant enrichment of genes involved in detoxification of inorganic compound (MT1E, MT1F, MT1G, MT1H and MT2A, Figure 5E, Supplementary Figure 8, Supplementary Table 12). This evidence concerns the gene MT1F and infection.