TNF and COVID-19: In the analysis of plasma cytokine levels, it was observed that patients with the severe form of COVID-19 had higher levels of IFN-α (p = 0.0006; Fig. 2A), TNF-α (p = 0.0137; Fig. 2C) and IL-6 (p = 0.0071; Fig. 2E) than those with the nonsevere form.