During acute COVID-19, patients exhibited increased levels of MMP-7 compared with HD (6.7 ng·mL−1 IQR 4.6–10.1 versus 3.9 IQR 3.2–5.0, p<0.0001), and similar results were found after 1-year post-COVID in both, the derivation cohort (7.9, IQR 4.8–11.2 ng·mL−1, p<0.0001), and the verification cohort (8.6 ng·mL−1 IQR 4.4–12.6 ng·mL−1, p<0.0001) (figure 1a). The gene discussed is MMP7; the disease is COVID-19.