PSMD1 and COVID-19: In the present research, we first observed, in line with the literature [1,14,15,16,17], that the SARS-CoV-2 S1 spike surface protein is sufficient alone to activate the production of key COVID-19 pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8) in alveolar A549 cells, a major COVID-19 cell-type target.