COVID-19-associated IL-6 production can also affect cardiac function: IL-6 has been shown to exacerbate viral myocarditis (240), and a recently submitted study using cardiac organoids stimulated with IL-1β suggests cardiac dysfunction may be due to downregulation of sarcomere components, reduced sarcomere width, contraction amplitude, increased cardiac fibrosis, and prothrombotic vasculature, irrespective of direct infection with SARS-CoV-2 (250). This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and infection.