Research efforts in the setting of rapid clinical advancements in the treatment of COVID-19 have implicated multiple pro-inflammatory signaling cascades, especially those involving IL-6, in the pathogenesis of cytokine release storms with resultant hyperactive host immune response resulting in multi-organ damage (Ragab et al., 2020; Wang and Perlman, 2022). The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is COVID-19.