IL1B and long COVID-19: These clustered spike trajectories capture meaningful biological information, as persistent spike patterns co-occur with elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) previously linked to PASC severity [33,34], and are associated with immune dysregulation signals such as enhanced neutrophil activity and the altered NK-cell phenotypes observed in Long COVID cohorts [58,59].